Mediators Announce New Sudan Truce

By Staff, Agencies

Sudan’s warring parties agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire starting Saturday, US and Saudi mediators said Friday, warning that facilitators could “adjourn” talks should the fresh truce fail to pause the nearly three-month conflict.

"Representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces [RSF] agreed to a 24-hour countrywide ceasefire beginning on June 10 at 6:00 am," said a joint statement from the mediators, released by the Saudi foreign ministry.

Multiple ceasefires have been agreed upon and broken, and Washington slapped sanctions on both the warring generals, after the last attempt collapsed at the end of May, blaming them for the "appalling" bloodshed.

"Should the parties fail to observe the 24-hour ceasefire, facilitators will be compelled to consider adjourning talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah which have been suspended since late last month,” the mediators warned.

Since April, fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary RSF has gripped Khartoum and the flashpoint western region of Darfur, defying a series of truces. Upwards of 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, and the United Nations said nearly two million people have been displaced – including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

The Saudi and US mediators said they "share the frustration of the Sudanese people about the uneven implementation of previous ceasefires.”

"If observed, the 24-hour ceasefire will provide an important opportunity... for the parties to undertake confidence-building measures which could permit resumption of the Jeddah talks," the statement said.