Riyadh (EFE).- The United States and Saudi Arabia, which are mediating and sponsoring the truce in Sudan, today asked the Army and the Rapid Support Forces (FAR) paramilitary group to initiate a new round of dialogue in the Arab kingdom to extend or agree a new “brief ceasefire” after the pause that will expire tomorrow, Monday.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US, facilitators of the brief ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements, call on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the FAR to continue talks to reach an agreement on its extension, as it expires on 29 May,” said a statement released by the Saudi Foreign Ministry.
The current one, of seven days and which entered into force at 18:45 GMT last Monday, was agreed after weeks of dialogue, indirect and in great secrecy, between the Sudanese Army and the FAR in the Saudi city of Jeddah, on the Red Sea. .
Humanitarian aid and protection of civilians
The main objective of the pause, the eighth since the start of the conflict in Sudan in mid-April, is to guarantee the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid in the country, but also to ensure compliance by the parties with the protection of people and civil facilities, especially health centers and services.
“Since there is no agreement to extend the current (truce), the parties must fulfill their commitment under the ceasefire (…) to protect civilians,” the statement added.
None of the truces reached in Sudan have been respected by the parties in conflict for power in the African country, although they have served for evacuation operations or the flight of the Sudanese to safer areas, amid numerous difficulties and insecurity.
To date, the conflict has caused the death of 700 civilians and the internal or external displacement of more than one million people, mostly women and children.
Darfur governor calls on civilians to “take up arms”
One of the regions hardest hit by the fighting has been Darfur.
The governor of this troubled western region of Sudan has today urged its civilians to “take up arms” in the face of the increase in attacks against citizens and the chaos unleashed after the outbreak of fighting between the Army and the paramilitary group Forces of Fast Support (FAR).
Minni Arko Minawi, former leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, was appointed governor of Darfur in 2021, after the signing of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and insurgent groups operating in this region of the country, the scene of a bloody war of ethnic overtones between 2003 and 2008.
The Sudanese Army has accused the FAR of initiating these tribal clashes, since the paramilitary group was formed from the so-called Yanyawiid militias, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict between 2003 and 2008.
That war caused the death of more than 300,000 people and the displacement of some 2.5 million people.