A top envoy to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Youssef Ezzat has expressed the need for peace during talks in Togo, focusing on preventing Sudan’s Darfur region from sinking deeper into war.
Ezzat acknowledged, “We’re all looking for peace. The Sudanese people are looking for peace.”
The impact of war has been felt by the Sudanese people for decades, spanning regions such as Darfur, Blue Nile, South Sudan, East Sudan, and even the capital, Khartoum. Ezzat stressed that now is the opportune time to end the war and pave the way for a new future, marked by peace, development, justice, and equality.
He affirmed his side’s willingness to engage in any peace-focused meetings and initiatives to halt the conflict in Darfur and Sudan.
However, on the frontline, fighting continued unabated, showing no signs of ceasing.
In an effort to prevent further chaos and escalation, representatives from a key Darfur rebel faction welcomed the creation of a roadmap during the Lomé talks. The aim is to work with various leaders, including community leaders in Darfur and across Sudan, to prevent a full-fledged civil war.
Darfur, situated in western Sudan, has witnessed some of the most severe bouts of violence throughout the conflict. In the early 2000s, the region endured another devastating war from which it never fully recovered.
During the talks in Togo’s capital, discussions revolved around ways to reopen Darfur’s El-Geneina airport under RSF control to facilitate the inflow of humanitarian aid.
The Togo talks were prompted by accusations from rights campaigners in Darfur, who held the RSF and allied Arab militias responsible for reported atrocities in the region, including rape, looting, and mass killings of ethnic minorities.
The conflict escalated when Sudan’s army chief and his former deputy, the commander of the paramilitary RSF forces, engaged in a deadly power struggle. Since April 15, fighting has transformed Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields, with the conflict spilling into ethnic clashes in Darfur.
This ongoing conflict has derailed Sudan’s aspirations of restoring the country’s fragile transition to democracy, which initially began after a popular uprising led to the removal of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. A subsequent coup, led by the military and RSF, disrupted the democratic transition in October 2021.
In the midst of the continuing violence, pro-democracy leaders convened in Cairo, Egypt, for a meeting—the first gathering of Sudanese politicians since the outbreak of the war.