ISTANBUL
Sudan’s Justice Minister Abdullah Dirif said Sunday his government is prepared to engage in political dialogue to end the country’s 20-month war, but any settlement requires the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to disarm, withdraw from major cities, and surrender security control to state authorities.
Speaking during a discussion panel at the Doha Forum 2025, Dirif said peace cannot move forward while the RSF continues to hold urban areas and operate with heavy weapons.
“How are we going to discuss peace and the truth if they have weapons in the hands of those criminals and terrorists?” he said.
Outlining Khartoum’s conditions for a ceasefire and political talks, Dirif said the rebels “need to agree to give their weapons in specific areas and leave all these cities, and the police should take over.”
The minister said the government remains open to regional and international mediation efforts but accused the RSF of repeatedly refusing to honor agreements.
“The last initiative we signed was the Jeddah Declaration. However, this militia didn’t commit to what we agreed on,” he said.
In May 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF reached an agreement in Jeddah on protecting civilians after mediation by the US and Saudi Arabia.
Several ceasefire deals were reached, but the repeated violations by the two rivals and mutual accusations pushed Washington and Riyadh to suspend their mediation.
On Oct. 26, the RSF seized El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and was accused of committing massacres against civilians, causing the displacement of more than 40,000 people, according to local and international reports.
The rebel group controls all five Darfur states out of Sudan’s 18 states, while the army holds most of the remaining 13 states, including the capital, Khartoum.
The civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.