Sudanese leader rules out any truce or peace with paramilitary RSF unless it lays down arms

KHARTOUM/ISTANBUL

Chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan rejected on Friday any truce or peace agreement with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) unless the rebel group first lays down its weapons.

“If the rebels do not put their weapons on the ground and sit down, there will be no dialogue or peace. We will not accept them in Sudan, nor those who stand with them,” Burhan told a crowd during a visit to the village of al-Siraih in the central Al-Gazira State.

“We will continue on this path. Either we eliminate them, or we keep fighting them until we give our lives. But we will have no truce, no talks, or peace with them,” he added.

He said all Sudanese “have been burned by this war,” adding that Sudan’s “national unity and shared destiny” remain intact.

The Sudanese leader stressed that the army has been determined from the outset “not to end this war except with the end of these rebels.”

“The Sudanese have suffered at the hands of these rebels; they killed, tortured, looted, and brutalized people, and they will receive nothing from us except what makes them taste suffering.”

Burhan said the army will have no plans for talks with the RSF.

“We assure our people that these killers and criminals have no place with us in Sudan,” he said. “If you want peace, gather these mercenaries in one place and collect their weapons. Without that, no one will speak to them.”

The Sudanese leader said the fight against the RSF “will not end unless everyone participates,” urging every person capable of carrying a weapon to join the battle. “This war will not end through negotiations or a truce but through defeating the rebellion,” he said.

Earlier this week, US envoy Masaad Boulos called on Sudan’s warring parties “to immediately agree to and implement a proposed humanitarian truce,” without giving details of the proposal.

Last week, the RSF said that it had agreed to join a humanitarian truce proposed by the Quad group—the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE.

The conflict in Sudan between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. It has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organization.

Last month, the RSF seized North Darfur’s capital, El-Fasher, and was accused of massacres. The group controls all five Darfur states, out of Sudan’s 18 states, while the army holds most of the remaining 13 states, including Khartoum.

Darfur makes up about one-fifth of Sudan’s territory, but most of the country’s 50 million people live in army-held areas.