The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, on Tuesday welcomed US-backed cease-fire talks in Switzerland planned for next month.
“I would like to appreciate the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland’s efforts in organizing these crucial discussions,” Dagalo wrote on X, previously known as Twitter. August 14 has been set as the date for the talks, which are aimed at ending the violence in Sudan.
“We are ready to engage positively with them and expect that they will constitute an important milestone towards peace, stability and the emergence of a new Sudan characterized by justice, equality and federalism,” added Dagalo
Tens of thousands dead in Sudan crisis as UN records ‘disturbing’ violations
The ongoing Sudanese civil war began last April after a conflict between Rapid Support Forces and Sudan armed forces led by Abdel-Fattah Burhan. No comment from the army of Sudan yet on this US supported ceasefire plan announced earlier today.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that reaching an agreement which gets “the parties back to the table” is the overall objective of the talks and this “is really our best shot at a nationwide cessation of violence.”
Millions have fled their homes in Sudan due to this conflict causing fears of famine with tens-of-thousands having already died.
Both Rapid Support Forces and Sudan armed forces have been accused of war crimes including indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas. Specifically, RSF has also been accused of carrying out ethnic killings in Darfur.
On Tuesday, UN’s International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan called for an end to this war stating it had “identified disturbing patterns of serious human rights violations during its three-week mission to neighbouring Chad.”
During late June into mid-July IFFM had interviews with survivors from Chad who were affected by events being investigated.
“The refugee community that the Mission spoke with described individually witnessed violence that caused them to flee from Sudan,” said the UN mission. “They provided personal stories of terrible acts of violence such as murder, sexual violence including gang rape, arbitrary arrests, torture, forced disappearances, pillaging, burning of houses and deploying children for use in war.”
