RSF declares three-month truce, calls on SAF to join

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have announced their agreement to a three-month humanitarian truce, saying they will halt fighting to allow aid to reach civilians. RSF commander Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) said in a filmed announcement on Monday that the ceasefire is “a national responsibility” and comes in response to mediation efforts “led by US President Donald Trump, the Quartet, the African Union and IGAD.”

Hemedti pledged to protect aid workers, secure warehouses and guarantee food and medical supplies “to all areas,” offering full cooperation with the UN. He also agreed to a monitoring mechanism supervised by the Quartet, the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, stressing that any RSF member proven to have committed violations “will not escape accountability.”

He called for an inclusive peace process that excludes what he described as the Islamic Movement and urged the international community to support the truce and provide urgent humanitarian relief.

The RSF’s announcement of a humanitarian truce comes against the backdrop of serious allegations of atrocities. When the group seized Bara in North Kordofan in October 2025, monitors reported killings, abductions, assaults and looting, describing the abuses as “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Satellite evidence from a report by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab showed that, in the same month, the RSF were disposing of bodies in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, near hospitals and in residential areas where mass killings had previously been reported.

These findings point to a pattern of violations that continues to overshadow the RSF’s ceasefire pledge.

El Burhan criticism

A spokesperson from the National Umma Party welcomed the unilateral ceasefire in a statement and urged the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to accept it, saying it could open safe corridors and pave the way for peace.

The announcement followed sharp criticism of Head of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the SAF, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, after he attacked the Quartet and the US’s Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos, on Sunday.

Alaa Nugud, a member of the Sudan Founding Alliance (Tasees) told Radio Dabanga yesterday, that El Burhan’s remarks expose “the army’s loyalty to the Islamic Movement,” accusing him of blocking peace to buy time for Islamist forces.

Sumoud (meaning resilience in Arabic) headed by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok also rejected El Burhan’s stance, saying he is abandoning the peace process and risking Sudan’s unity.

It reaffirmed support for the Quartet’s roadmap, arguing that it offers “the best opportunity to end the war and build a single, professional army.” Sumoud said the war, not the Quartet, is what has dismantled Sudan, accusing El Burhan of prolonging fighting “to secure his power.”