Sudanese army, RSF exchange blame over ceasefire breach

The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) extended late Sunday the ceasefire agreement for a period of three days to allow humanitarian teams to operate after around three weeks of bloody clashes.

Since April 15, six ceasefire agreements took place between the two sides brokered by the US at one time as well as the UN and Saudi Arabia.

However, the army and the RSF — the first controlling the airspace and the latter having land superiority — each exchange blame over breaching the ceasefire agreements.

In this regard, political science professor Dr. Bakri Al-Jaak told KUNA that the main reason behind breaching the ceasefire was the lack of both leaderships control over the situation on the ground.

He also indicated that the leaderships on both sides of the conflict liked to show the world that they were for de-escalating the situation, while each were focusing on ending the situation militarily.

The professor pointed out that there was not much optimism in regards to maintaining the truce with each party of the conflict focusing on making gains, which they think would give them the upper hand over the situation.

The UN and the western state had urged the army and the RSF to abide by the ceasefire agreement to allow for humanitarian aid efforts.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) Volker Perthes told the press recently that the US brokered ceasefire in Sudan seemed to stand in several areas of the country, but there were still signs of conflict elsewhere, which was not good.

He stressed that it was important to have an international supervision over the ceasefire agreement to prevent the army or the RSF from abusing the agreements.

On a military level, expert Ameen Ismail told KUNA that the assurances for ceasefire must be imposed on all those involved in the current conflict to prevent accusations and breaking the truce.

Local, regional, and international observers must also be involved to make sure that all were abiding by any written agreement to stop the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the freedom and change forces Mohammad Abdulhakam told KUNA that fragility of the agreements signed by the army and the RSF would lead to a more complicated situation in Sudan.

He expressed that hopes that the Saudi-US brokered ceasefire would continue to be maintained for the sake of civilians and in turn would lead to steps to resolve the infighting.

According to numbers of the Sudanese Health Ministry, the battles between the army and the RSF had left over 500 dead and thousands injured.

The military dispute began as final political talks to transition a civilian government failed. Included in the political process is an item, which made the RSF integrate into the ranks of the Sudanese army.

Source: Kuwait News Agency