Juba/Khartoum, May 3 (IANS) Sudan’s two warring military leaders — Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — have agreed on a seven-day ceasefire mediated by neighbouring South Sudan.
Pauline Adhong Malok, the spokesperson for South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a media briefing in Juba that the ceasefire, which was negotiated by President Salva Kiir, will start on Thursday to pave the way for peace talks between warring factions,reports Xinhua news agency.
“The government of the Republic of South Sudan has obtained the consent of the two parties to the current conflict in Sudan to name their representatives to peace talks to be held at any venue of their choice,” Malok said.
She added that Kiir, during a telephone conversation with Burhan and Dagalo, stressed the need for a longer ceasefire and speedy solution to the conflict that broke out in mid-April.
The South Sudanese President is leader of a team of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Assembly of the Heads of State that is negotiating for an end to the violent conflict in Sudan.
Currently in its third week after it erupted on April 15, the conflict, which is concentrated in the capital of Khartoum, has triggered a mass exodus of civilians to neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan.
In addition, foreign countries have evacuated their citizens from Sudan even as the UN warns of a looming humanitarian crisis amid a lack of food, clean water, and medicine among civilians trapped in the conflict.
The deadly clashes have so far killed 550 people and injured 4,926 others, according to the latest figures released by Sudan’s Ministry of Health.
Despite an ongoing 72-hour truce, intermittent clashes have continued between the SAF and the RSF in various areas in Khartoum and Omdurman.
The SAF has carried out intensive airstrikes against RSF positions in Bahri (Khartoum North), west of Omdurman, and around the army’s general command in central Khartoum, eyewitnesses said.
The RSF, meanwhile, accused the SAF of violating the humanitarian truce.
–IANS
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