PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, at war with a rival paramilitary group since April 2023, called on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace.
“The Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president’s honesty and work with us — and those in the region who genuinely seek peace — to end this war,” Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.
Attempts to broker peace between Burhan and his one-time deputy, Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have repeatedly failed over the course of the war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
Trump took an interest in the war for the first time last week, vowing he would end it after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman urged him to get involved.
“The consensus among Sudanese is that Mr.Trump is a leader who speaks directly and acts decisively. Many believe he has the resolve to confront the foreign actors prolonging our suffering,” Burhan wrote.
The US and the UAE, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt are currently attempting to broker a truce.
In his 1,200-word piece published Wednesday, Burhan said the choice was “between a sovereign state trying to protect its citizens and a genocidal militia bent on destroying communities.”
Burhan’s government is internationally recognized, and in January the US determined the RSF had committed genocide in the western region of Darfur.
But his own forces have also been accused of atrocities since the war began, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
The career soldier, who in 2021 collaborated with Dagalo to oust civilians from a transitional government, wrote on Wednesday: “I long recognized that the RSF was a powder keg.”
RSF commander Dagalo, whose fighters were originally contracted by Khartoum to fight its wars on Sudan’s periphery, became Burhan’s right-hand man after Sudan’s 2018-2019 uprising.
A long-simmering power struggle between them erupted into all-out war on April 15, 2023.
Sudan army chief calls on Trump to end country’s war
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Sudan army chief calls on Trump to end country’s war
- Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, at war with a rival paramilitary group since April 2023, called on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace
Drone attack by paramilitary group in Sudan kills 24, including 8 children, doctors’ group says
- Saturday’s attack by RSF occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network
- The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area
CAIRO: A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said, a day after a World Food Program aid convoy was targeted.
Saturday’s attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.
The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area, the group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants.
Several others were wounded and taken for treatment in Rahad, which suffers severe medical supplies shortages, like many areas in the Kordofan region, the statement said.
The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”
There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions displaced.
