Sudan envoy downplays proposed peace talks with RSF in South Sudan
The proposed peace talks between rival Sudanese military factions by the regional body- Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have not been warmed up to by the Sudan Sovereign Council leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
Gamal Malik Ahmed Goraish, Charge d’ Affaires in the Sudan embassy in South Sudan, told The Juba Echo that there is no clear agenda on the table for the Sudan Sovereign Council leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan to talk about with his rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo alias Hemedti who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ( RSF).
“The peace talks that people now are talking about, it is not clear yet what is the agenda for these peace talks and how they will take place,” Ahmed said in an interview on Thursday in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
His remarks come after media reports, citing recent discussion between Al-Burhan and the team of three IGAD Heads of State led by President Salva Kiir said the latter had agreed to send special military envoy to Juba to start talks with the RSF.
Ahmed said the government has already dissolved the RSF and called on it’s rank and file to surrender unconditionally.
“The rapid support force has been dissolved by the army and now there is no any force called rapid support force, so you cannot sit down (talks) unless there is something new if they surrender, give up their weapons or things change on the ground,” he said.
“It still not clear for us the agenda and what people are expecting from these peace talks, so it is still early to talk about the peace talks and agenda because this has to be discussed between the two capitals,” Ahmed disclosed.
He said that Al-Burhan proposed sending special military envoy to Juba, but the success of this initiative hinges on the situation on the ground, adding that currently the Sudan armed forces are having upper hand over the RSF.
“The government of Sudan has no any interest for this fighting to continue, but it (peace talks) has to be based on certain conditions on the ground, because you cannot go back again for the same force (RSF) to be parallel,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed accused the RSF of violating the 72-hour ceasefire recently brokered on Tuesday by the U.S and Saudi Arabia.
“This ceasefire started two days ago and today is the last day, do you see really on the ground ceasefire, it is not happening because once this ceasefire was being announced the Sudan armed forces accepted this for humanitarian purposes, but the RSF immediately on the same day violated the ceasefire and started to move their forces from place to place,” he said.
Ahmed said the Sudanese army is trying to mitigate severe civilian casualties during it’s operation in the capital, due to the fact that RSF forces have embedded themselves among civilians.
“The army is trying to retake control in some areas with consideration to civilian lives because these people (RSF) put the civilians as human shields, they are not confronting the army they are now hiding inside houses of civilians,” he said.
Fighting erupted in Khartoum on April 15th, after the army had rebuked the RSF for uncoordinated troop movement and redeployment around the capital and it’s twin cities.
The major cause of the clashes centered on the disagreement on the period of integrating the RSF into the national army.
The Sudanese army preferred RSF to be integrated within a two-year period while the RSF wanted to be given 10-year period.
