CAIRO: The head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces said late on Monday that his paramilitaries would immediately enter into a three-month humanitarian truce, after US President Donald Trump said last week that he would intervene to seek an end to a war that has plunged the country into famine.
The United States, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — known as the Quad — earlier this month proposed a plan for a three-month truce followed by peace talks.
The RSF responded by saying it had accepted the plan, but soon after attacked army territory with a barrage of drone strikes.
Monday’s statement appeared to announce a unilateral ceasefire. It came a day after Sudan’s army chief rejected the Quad’s proposals.
“In response to international efforts, chiefly that of His Excellency US President Donald Trump ... I announce a humanitarian ceasefire including a cessation of hostilities for three months,” General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF said in a speech on Monday.
“We hope the Quad countries will play their role in pushing the other side to engage with this step,” he added.
His comments come at a time when the RSF has come under fire for brutal attacks on civilians in the aftermath of its takeover of the city of Al-Fashir in late October.
That takeover cemented its control of the Darfur region, and the force has subsequently stepped up attacks on the Kordofan region in a bid to take control of the country.
Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in his speech on Sunday accused the US proposal of aiming to weaken the Sudanese army while allowing the RSF to maintain the territory it has seized.
“No one in Sudan will accept the presence of these rebels or for them to be part of any solution in the future,” Burhan said.
He also denied what he said were US accusations of Islamist influence in his government.”
In his rejection of the US Peace Plan for Sudan, and his repeated refusal to accept a ceasefire, he demonstrates consistently obstructive behavior,” Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation, said in a statement on Monday.
The war in Sudan, which broke out in April 2023 over disagreements on integrating the two groups, in addition to plunging Sudan into famine, has killed tens of thousands of civilians, particularly in ethnically-based bloodshed.
The RSF has been accused of genocide, and both Dagalo and Burhan have been sanctioned by the United States.
Sudan’s RSF paramilitary says it will enter into ceasefire
https://arab.news/9yn53
Sudan’s RSF paramilitary says it will enter into ceasefire
- Monday’s statement appeared to announce a unilateral ceasefire
- It came a day after Sudan’s army chief rejected the Quad’s proposals
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
