The Sudanese army announced on Tuesday the evacuation of five nuns from the “Salesian Catholic Association” and a priest from the “Don Bosco” association, in addition to 20 citizens from the State of South Sudan, who were stranded in the Al-Shajara area, south of the Sudanese capital, which has been witnessing fierce battles between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces since mid-April / April last year. According to armed forces spokesman Nabil Abdel Allah, they were all taken to the city of Omdurman, west of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The army is largely controlled from the city of Omdurman, and while the RSF advances in the city of Bahri, the two sides are close to control in Khartoum, with the three cities forming the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is expected to head to the city of Omdurman, west of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, to lead military operations there, according to the statements of his aide, the third man in the Sudanese army, Yasser Al-Atta, who indicated that they received instructions to prepare a headquarters for Burhan in the city of Omdurman. Burhan has been running the country from the eastern city of Port Sudan since the outbreak of the April 15, April, 2023 war.
He stressed that Burhan was committed to stepping down from his post before the outbreak of the war that prevented it, adding: “He was determined to fulfill the covenant as did Field Marshal Abdul Rahman Swar al-Dahab, had it not been for the war that forced him to continue until the defeat of the Rapid Support Forces.”
It is noteworthy that Swar al-Dahab assumed power during the April April 1985 uprising as the highest army commander and in coordination with the leaders of the uprising from parties and unions, until he handed over power in 1986 to an elected government headed by its ministers, Sadiq al-Mahdi.
During his speech, Al-Atta stressed that the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General Shams al-Din al-Kabbashi, and his aides are determined to defeat the RSF and will remain a support for the President of the Sovereign Council and under his leadership to defeat Hemedti’s forces, adding: “We do not like war, but it was imposed on the Sudanese people, we will continue to fight until the end of the’ support forces.” Al-Atta’s remarks come after leaks that talked about widespread differences in the cabinet of army commanders.
In his speech to soldiers in the Omdurman military region, the army’s third man affirmed their will and ability to defeat the RSF, noting that the Sudanese Armed Forces are a national institution whose leaders have no ambitions to govern.
He accused those he described as the political wing of the Rapid Support Forces – he did not name them – of igniting the war, adding: “They decorated the Rapid Support Forces, owned by the Dagalo family, the authority and told it we will be with you, and pushed them to fight the people and the armed forces.”
He continued: “The war began when Hemedti sent his troops to Meroe days before the first bullet, pointing out that the armed forces issued warning statements, and that the “Rapid Support” in return went too far and surrounded Khartoum and attacked the head of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in his house.
Sudan’s military and the RSF have accused each other of firing the first shot in the country’s more than fifteen months of war.
Al-Atta said that the commander-in-chief of the army has a strong will and firm determination to “defeat the militia for a hundred years, not one year,” referring to the Rapid Support Forces, stressing that they are close to achieving victory.
This comes at a time when international moves are accelerating to push the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces to the negotiating table through a new platform in the Swiss capital, Geneva, while the army insists that the “Jeddah platform” be the basis of any upcoming negotiating process.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both sides to participate in ceasefire negotiations in Geneva.
The State Department said Blinken phoned Burhan, urging the armed forces to negotiate a ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian access to Sudanese.
The Geneva negotiations are expected to begin on August 14, August, if the Sudanese government agrees. Hemedti had announced his agreement to participate in the Geneva platform last July. Sudan’s Foreign Ministry has asked the United States for further discussions on the initiative, on which it has yet to announce a final position.
Burhan said in a post on the X platform: “I received a call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with whom I spoke about the need to address the concerns of the Sudanese government before any negotiations begin. I informed him that the rebel militia is besieging and attacking El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and preventing the passage of food to the displaced people of Zamzam camp.”
In remarks on Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Hussein Awad said that the position of the government of Sudan is committed to the results of the “Jeddah Platform” as the only platform for negotiation, and the need to implement its outputs and implement decisions to protect civilians as a precondition for reaching a final ceasefire agreement in Sudan.
Although the Jeddah negotiating platform was launched only twenty days after the outbreak of war in Sudan, it has been faltering despite repeated attempts.
Talks between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces began by a US-Saudi in Jeddah on the fifth of May May last year.
Six days later, the two sides signed the Jeddah Declaration to protect civilians, but fierce fighting escalated inside the capital, Khartoum, and spread in the Darfur and Kordofan region.
In July July, talks between the two sides hit the first walls of failure, as a ceasefire agreement stalled, after which stumbling blocks in the platform, which was suspended several times without making any significant progress.
Source : Al-Quds Al-Arabi
