Abdel Fattah al-Burhan rejects the latest peace efforts and claims that RSF fighters are “committing war crimes” across the country.
Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has vowed to continue a nine-month war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), rejecting latest peace efforts.
RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo earlier this week accepted a ceasefire proposed by civilian groups, subject to the military also agreeing. But observers responded with skepticism in light of the paramilitary force’s previous broken promises.
“The entire world witnessed these rebel forces committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Western Darfur and the rest of Sudan. For that reason, we do not have any reconciliation with them, we do not have any agreement with them,” al-Burhan, who is also Sudan’s head of state, told troops gathered in Port Sudan in a video released by his office on Friday.
He was referring to ethnic cleansing in and around the town of El Geneina in Western Darfur.
The United States has accused both the military and the RSF of war crimes, and says the RSF is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
The war that began on April 15 has devastated large areas of Sudan and displaced more than 7.5 million people.
‘Coward’
As RSF appeared to gain the upper hand in the fight, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an African trading bloc, last month got al-Burhan and Dagalo to agree to a face-to-face meeting.
But al-Burhan dismissed it on Friday, calling his rival a “clown,” a “traitor” and a “coward.” He rejected the ceasefire agreement that Dagalo signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this week.
Al-Burhan also criticized leaders of African countries, including South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya, who welcomed Dagalo as a statesman during his visits this week and Sudanese politicians who met him in Ethiopia.
“He is humiliating the Sudanese people, he is killing them, insulting them, and some people are applauding him and laughing with him,” al-Burhan said.
The RSF has faced growing popular resistance in northern Sudan after it attacked Gezira state last month and looted farming villages.
Al-Burhan said he would arm Sudanese who wanted to fight the RSF and urged them to join the army.
The country faces the threat of falling under “serfdom and colonialism,” al-Burhan said. This was an apparent reference to the United Arab Emirates, which the army accuses of supporting the RSF.
Dagalo has shared photos of him disembarking from a plane owned by an Emirati airline that, according to flight records, has been heading to the locations of his regional tour.
