Ofure Akhigbe
The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Thursday, November 6, agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by a US-led mediator group, days after seizing control of El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur. The move follows mounting international pressure to ease the suffering of civilians trapped in nearly two years of war.
The RSF, which captured El-Fasher in late October after more than 18 months of fighting, announced its decision in a video statement released on Thursday.
RSF spokesperson Al-Fateh Qurashi Bashir said the group had accepted the truce “in response to the aspirations and interests of the Sudanese people.” He added that the agreement, proposed by the Quartet countries — the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt — aimed to “address the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the war and enhance the protection of civilians” by ensuring the delivery of urgent aid across Sudan, including to the devastated city of El-Fasher.
The Sudanese army said it would only agree to a ceasefire if the RSF withdrew from civilian areas and laid down its weapons.
The siege and capture of El-Fasher have deepened Sudan’s humanitarian crisis. Aid workers say civilians trapped in the city have survived on animal feed and rainwater while sheltering in holes for safety. Rights groups report that RSF fighters massacred hundreds of civilians during the city’s takeover, carrying out ethnically and politically motivated executions.
Nearly two years of fighting for control of Sudan has left more than 40,000 people dead — a figure widely seen as an undercount — and displaced over 14 million others, according to humanitarian agencies. The RSF’s capture of El-Fasher, the last major city in Darfur not under its control, has intensified fears that Africa’s third-largest country could once again fragment, almost 15 years after oil-rich South Sudan seceded following decades of civil war.