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The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) have agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, the foreign ministry of South Sudan said in a statement on May 2.
The ministry added that the two sides said they would send representatives for peace talks “to be held at an agreed venue of their choice.”
The army’s Commander-in-Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have been ruling Sudan as the president and vice-president of the Sovereign Council since a coup in October 2021.
The two sides have been clashing in the capital, Khartoum, and other parts of Sudan for nearly three weeks. The clashes broke out as a result of a disagreement over how the RSF should be integrated into the army and what authority should oversee the process during transition to civilian-led rule in the country.
Commenting on the South Sudanese announcement, the army said on May 3 that it had agreed to the regional African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s (IGAD) proposal to extend a ceasefire for one week and send an army envoy for talks with South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti leaders
On the same day, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths arrived in Sudan on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.
“We will still require agreements and arrangements to allow for movement of staff and supplies,” he told reporters via video link from Port Sudan. “We will need to have agreement at the highest level and very publicly and we will need to deliver those commitments into local arrangements that can be depended on.”
Al-Burhan and Dagalo, also known as Hemedt, have agreed on multiple ceasefires since the clashes began, but none has effectively taken hold.
The clashes between the two sides have so far claimed the lives of 550 people and wounded 4,926 others, according to a recent report by the Sudanese Health Ministry. The power struggle could claim more victims and drive Sudan to a lengthy civil war.
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Haftar and Hemedti should give up.