Sudan’s capital of Khartoum appeared to be relatively calm on Saturday, a day after Saudi Arabia and the United States announced a 24-hour ceasefire starting Saturday between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Al-Jazeera reported that the United States and Saudi Arabia-brokered ceasefire took effect from 6am (04:00 GMT) on Saturday.
“We have not been able to hear any sound of artillery shellings,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said on Saturday from Omdurman, located on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital.
Saudi Foreign Ministry announced the ceasefire in a statement said on Friday. The two warring factions agreed to allow for the movement of humanitarian aid all throughout Sudan, the statement said.
“Saudi Arabia and the US join the Sudanese people in their frustration over the non-commitment of the previous truces,” the statement said.
Both the SAF and the RSF said they had agreed to the ceasefire.
القيادة العامة للقوات المسلحة
الجمعة ٩ يونيو ٢٠٢٣م
سعت ٤٢ : ٣تقديرا لجهود الميسرين (المملكة العربية السعودية والولايات المتحدة)، ومراعاة للجوانب الإنسانية التي يعانيها شعبنا جراء العمليات الجارية، توافق القوات المسلحة على مقترح هدنه ٢٤ ساعة pic.twitter.com/aaHJ6bEiLc
— القوات المسلحة السودانية – الإعلام العسكري (@GHQSudan) June 9, 2023
We express our sincerest appreciation to Saudi Arabia and the United States for their joint mediation platform. We also extend our deepest gratitude to our esteemed counterparts in Saudi Arabia, including its leadership and its compassionate citizens, for their generous…
— Rapid Support Forces – قوات الدعم السريع (@RSFSudan) June 9, 2023
Mediators hope that a pause in fighting will facilitate the safe passage of desperately needed humanitarian aid across the country.
The ceasefire is also hoped to halt the fighting that has been raging since April 15 when a rivalry between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo exploded into open warfare.
A string of previous ceasefires have fallen through with both sides accusing the other of violations.
On Thursday, Sudan’s foreign ministry which backs the country’s armed forces notified the United Nations that Volker Perthes, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Sudan, and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), had been declared “persona non grata.”
Sudan’s foreign ministry did not clarify in the statement the reason behind the declaration.
Last month, Sudan’s military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asking that Perthes be removed from his post in the country, the Sudanese presidency said, according to Reuters.
Source: Al-Jazeera and CNN
