Sudan Army and RSF agree to extend 72-hour truce despite ongoing fighting

27 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed on Thursday to extend the 72-hour truce announced on Tuesday despite the crossed accusations of having failed to comply with the ceasefire and the constant fighting in different parts of the country.

The RSF have accepted the “humanitarian truce” as of midnight this Thursday and have assured that within the Armed Forces there is “more than one opinion”, which has caused “contradictory decisions” and has affected the breach of the agreement, according to a statement posted on his Twitter.

In this sense, they have affirmed that, despite the declared truce of 72 hours to facilitate the evacuations of civilians, as well as diplomatic personnel, the Sudanese forces have continued to attack their positions “with planes and artillery”.

For its part, the Sudanese Army has also accused the RSF paramilitaries of breaching the cessation of hostilities agreement, bombing, shooting and attacking Sudanese commanders and their installations, as well as residential neighborhoods.

“The rebels tried to attack our forces south of Omdurman, but the forces managed to repel and destroy the attacking force,” it said in a statement, adding that they have also “terrorized” residents of the Burri Al Daraisa neighborhood.

The hostilities broke out on April 15 in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF –led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias ‘Hemedti’, who is also vice president of the Sovereign Transition Council– in the within the Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition.

The talks process began with international mediation after the head of the Army and president of the Sovereign Transition Council, Abdelfatá al Burhan, led a coup in October 2021 that overthrew the then prime minister of unity, Abdalá Hamdok, appointed to the position as a result of contacts between civilians and the military after the April 2019 riot, which ended 30 years of the regime of Omar Hasan al Bashir.