Sudan's warring parties declare cease-fire on 1st day of Eid

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal, Ömer Erdem and Ahmed Satti

TORONTO (AA) - Sudan’s de facto leader and head of its armed forces declared a "unilateral" cease-fire Tuesday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

In an address on state television, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the whole world is witnessing what happened in the capital Khartoum, Ubaid, Zalin and Nyala and the events in Junaynah, which may be a crime of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Saying that the armed forces fulfilled their responsibilities against this "treacherous conspiracy," Burhan thanked the Sudanese people for supporting the armed forces.

Burhan said the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who has been in conflict with the army since April 15, wants to establish his own kingdom "on the remains and skulls of the Sudanese."

He reiterated that the armed forces are willing to hand over power to a civilian government led by the Sudanese people.

Dagalo also declared a "unilateral" cease-fire on the eve and first day of Eid.

On April 15, fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the RSF in the capital Khartoum and its surroundings. More than 600 people have been killed and thousands injured.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the Sudanese army and the RSF over the RSF's integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a "coup."

Sudan's transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.