Sudan’s Burhan says will not accept ‘foreign-imposed solutions’

KHARTOUM

Sudan's Sovereign Council leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said Monday that the Sudanese people will not accept any externally imposed solutions.

"The Sudanese people will ultimately prevail, whether others like it or not, and they will not accept any foreign-imposed solutions," Burhan told a conference in Darfur province in western Sudan.

"The Sudanese people will not accept a government imposed upon them, nor the reinstatement of (former Prime Minister) Abdalla Hamdok or any other individual,” he said.

Hamdok, a former prime minister between 2019 and 2022, now leads the Taqaddum, a coalition of democratic forces.

“Whoever wants to govern Sudan must first come to the country and fight alongside the Sudanese people to defeat the rebellion (the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces). There is no longer a place among us for foreign agents,” said Burhan, who is also the army chief.

He urged the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development in East Africa (IGAD) “to save their efforts because their actions will not gain the approval of the Sudanese people."

“How can they bring figures rejected by the Sudanese people and attempt to impose them on Sudan again?"

The army and RSF have been fighting a war since mid-April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.

International and UN calls for an end to the war are mounting, warning of an impending humanitarian catastrophe as millions face famine and death due to food shortages. The conflict has spread to 13 of Sudan’s 18 states.