Sudan’s military accepts UN proposal for a week-long ceasefire in El Fasher

Cairo (AP) – Sudan’s military agrees to a UN proposal for a weekly ceasefire in El Fasher to promote UN assistance efforts to the region.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called Sudan’s military leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him to hold a humanitarian truce in El Fasher, the capital of the Northern Darfur province, to allow aid delivery.

Burhan agreed with the proposal and stressed the importance of implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions, but it is unclear whether the paramilitary rapid support force will agree and comply with the ceasefire.

“We are contacting both sides with this goal, which is the basic reason for the phone contact. We are in a dramatic situation at El Fasher,” Guterres told reporters on Friday.

No further details about the ceasefire were disclosed, including when it will take effect.

Sudan fell into war in April 2023, when tensions between the Sudanese army and rival RSF escalated into the battle in the capital Khartoum and spread across the country, killing more than 20,000 people.

The war also drove 14 million homes and pushed parts of the country to famine. UNICEF said earlier this year that an estimated 61,800 children have been displaced since the war began.

Guterres said on Friday that effective aid allocation requires a humanitarian truce and that mass delivery must be agreed several days in advance in the El Fasher area, which has recently experienced repeated waves of violence.

El-Fasher, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Khartoum, is under the control of the army. RSF has been trying to capture El Fasher for a year to consolidate its control over the entire Darfur region. Paramilitary attempts include repeated attacks on the city, as well as two major famine displacement camps in its suburbs.