After more than a week of fighting that claimed hundreds of lives, injured thousands, and caused a large-scale departure of foreigners, the fighting generals in Sudan have agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire.
This is according to a statement by the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
Since violence broke out on April 15 between army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, internationally mediated cease-fires have frequently failed. The latest effort at a cease-fire, which had little to no effect on the fighting, was set to expire Monday night.
“Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours,” Blinken said in a statement.
According to UN organisations, at least 427 people have died and more than 3,700 have been injured thus far.
On Monday, Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, issued a warning about a “catastrophic conflagration” that would envelop the area. He exhorted the Security Council’s 15 members to “exert maximum leverage” on both parties in order to “pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss.”
Aside from the US, other countries utilising aircraft and convoys to evacuate foreign nationals from Sudan include Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the United States.
U.S. and European officials stressed that despite the withdrawal, they were still working to put a stop to the conflict.
After the United States evacuated its embassy in Khartoum, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a “cessation of hostilities” in Sudan on Monday.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional organisation, decided last week to send Kenyan President William Ruto, Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh, and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir to mediate a cease-fire after calling for an immediate and unconditional end to the violence in Sudan.
Former Sudanese Foreign Minister Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi, who quit last year over a political deal between Burhan and former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, encouraged the warring parties to put an end to their hostilities.
“It must come to an end by consent. They must agree to a truce. And that truce can go on for a permanent cease-fire. And we see the terms of how to finalize the terms of constituting, one unified professional national army. At the same time, we negotiate with them the submission of power to the civilians,” Mahdi told journalists on Sunday.
A pro-democracy uprising led to the 2019 ouster of former strongman Sudanese Omar al-Bashir. But in 2021, Burhan and Dagalo joined forces to seize power in a coup.
The US and EU have been working with the generals for years, trying to push them into ceding power to a democratic, civilian government.