Chair of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan linked engagement in the Jeddah Negotiations to stop the fighting in his country with the withdrawal of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from cities and citizens’ homes.
Al-Burhan, who also holds the position of army commander, relayed this statement in a speech on Thursday before the people in the city of Atbara, according to a statement by the Sovereignty Council. In reference to the RSF, Al-Burhan stressed: “We will not negotiate with the rebel terrorist militia.”
He added: “We will not go to Jeddah’s negotiating platform until after it withdraws and exits cities and citizens’ homes in all the cities of Sudan that they have invaded. We will crush the (RSF) rebellion, and we are confident that this battle will end with the defeat of the militia and its allies and supporters.”
“We promised the Sudanese people who were displaced, whose money was looted, and whose honour was violated, that we will retaliate against them, and we will take their full rights from the militia, and that we will defeat it soon,” Al-Burhan continued.
Al-Burhan’s statements come days after he met with Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Al-Khuraiji in Port Sudan and discussed resuming the Jeddah negotiations to stop the war.
Jeddah hosted talks between the two sides of the conflict, the Sudanese army and the RSF. However, the lack of progress in the talks undermined hopes for a solution to the conflict that caused the displacement of millions inside and outside Sudan, weakened the economy and led to ethnic massacres in Darfur.
The situation in Sudan is heading towards more complicated courses of the armed conflict that the country has been witnessing for over a year, amid fears of a new secession scenario after the faltering of the Saudi and American-brokered talks between the two parties to the conflict, and their continued fighting that has caused a major humanitarian crisis.
Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese Army and the RSF have been waging a war that has left many casualties and about eight million displaced and refugees, in addition to the deaths of tens of thousands, according to the United Nations (UN).
The UN disclosed that half of Sudan’s population (about 50 million people) requires humanitarian aid, and 18 million people are close to famine, equalling an increase of ten million compared to last year.
Photo and source: Middle East Monitor
