Sudan: RSF says it has not received El-Fasher truce proposal
The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said that it has not been formally contacted by international actors to implement a humanitarian truce in the city of El-Fasher, according to Asharq Al-Aswat on June 29th.
El-Fasher is the capital city of North Darfur – a region in which civilians remain trapped and exposed to violence, hunger. The World Food Programme warned that civilians are at risk of famine.
The RSF made the statement one day after the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces and ruling Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, agreed to the request of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to implement a week-long ceasefire in El-Fasher.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Aswat, RSF legal adviser Mohamed al-Mukhtar al-Nour proclaimed that the group unequivocally rejects any partial or full truce, irrespective of whether it is to be enforced in El-Fasher or elsewhere. According to al-Nour, neither the United states nor the United Nations has formally contacted the RSF regarding the ceasefire proposal.
Al-Nour said that the city of El-Fasher is now mostly deserted as the majority of civilians who were located there have fled to areas such as Tawila, Karma, and Jebel Marra.
He also claimed that the only people who remain in the city are Sudanese Armed Forces personnel and allied combatants from armed movements who support the military.
In recent weeks, intense fighting between the RSF and the military has occurred in El-Fasher. This has raised serious concerns amongst humanitarian agencies regarding civilian safety and the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region.
The civil war in Sudan, which erupted as a power struggle between the armed groups in April 2023, has devastated the country’s infrastructure and population. Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over 13 million. The United Nations has labelled the situation in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Asharq Al-Aswat, Maghrebi.org
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