PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a devastating conflict with the national army for more than two years, said on Thursday that it has accepted a proposal for a humanitarian truce presented by international mediators.
The RSF’s announcement comes just days after the group seized control of El-Fasher, a major strategic city and the army’s final stronghold in the vast and war-scarred Darfur region. The fall of El-Fasher marks one of the most significant shifts in the battlefield since the conflict began, tightening the RSF’s grip over western Sudan.
In its statement, the RSF said it was responding to the demands of ordinary Sudanese desperate for relief from the country’s spiralling humanitarian catastrophe. “In response to the aspirations and interests of the Sudanese people, the Rapid Support Forces affirms its agreement to enter into the humanitarian truce proposed by the Quad countries,” the group said. The Quad—comprising the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia—has been leading diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting and secure access for humanitarian aid.
The transitional government, which aligns with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), did not immediately react to the RSF’s declaration. Analysts say the army’s silence may reflect internal divisions over whether to accept a truce at a moment when its forces have suffered major territorial losses.
Earlier on Thursday, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan struck a defiant tone, insisting that the military remained committed to defeating the RSF. “Our forces are still striving for the defeat of the enemy,” he said, signalling that the army may not be prepared to halt hostilities despite growing international pressure.
The conflict between the SAF and RSF has plunged Sudan into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, displacing millions, destabilising entire regions and putting millions more at risk of famine. Mediators hope that even a temporary pause in fighting could open corridors for aid agencies, which have repeatedly warned of dire shortages of food, medicine and safe access.
Whether the truce will take hold remains uncertain, with both sides heavily armed, deeply entrenched and distrustful of one another. But international officials say the RSF’s public acceptance of the proposal marks a rare opening in a conflict that has otherwise shown little sign of easing.
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