Report: Sudan Warring Parties Agree to 7-Day Truce Starting Thursday

By Staff, Agencies

The warring parties in Sudan agreed to a seven-day truce, starting Thursday, in a phone conversation with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, the foreign ministry in Juba said Tuesday, raising hopes of an end to weeks of bloodshed.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces [RSF], "have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4^th to 11^th," the ministry said in a statement.

Last week, Burhan approved the extension of an earlier ceasefire, which was brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia. After the extension, Sudan's army said it would send representatives to meet RSF negotiators in Juba, the capital of neighboring South Sudan.

But despite the ceasefire, the fighting has entered its third week, and Sudan’s rival military forces continue to violate each ceasefire attempt. "God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper,” former Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok warned on Sunday. “I think it would be a nightmare for the world."

More than 500 people have been reported killed and some 4,600 wounded since fighting erupted on April 15. The chaos and bloodshed have sparked a mass exodus of tens of thousands of Sudanese to neighboring countries like Egypt and Chad.

Millions of those who haven’t fled are sheltered in their homes with dwindling necessities and frequent power cuts, as fighter jets thundering through the sky on bombing raids have drawn heavy anti-aircraft fire.