Sudan’s head of its armed forces declared a “unilateral” cease-fire Tuesday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.
He reiterated that the armed forces are willing to hand over power to a civilian government led by the Sudanese people.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), also declared a “unilateral” cease-fire on the eve and first day of Eid.
On April 15, fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the RSF in the capital Khartoum and its surroundings. More than 600 people have been killed and thousands injured.
A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the Sudanese army and the RSF over the latter’s integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups.
Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”
Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.