US Ceasefire Proposal Risks Sudan’s Fragmentation Along Libya‑Like Lines, Adviser Warns

• The RSF has been working to create a parallel government.
• The United States says neither side represents legitimate governance.

Washington: A US ceasefire proposal aimed at halting Sudan’s civil war may drive the nation toward a partition resembling Libya’s current division, according to a senior adviser to the army‑led Sudanese government, who offered some of the sharpest criticism yet of the plan.

These comments follow a week after Reuters reported that army chief General Abdel Fattah al‑Burhan’s visa to attend the UN General Assembly in New York had been denied pending his acceptance of the proposal.

Since April 2023, Sudan’s armed forces have been engaged in combat with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a split that originated from disagreements over integrating their troops as part of a planned transition to civilian governance.

The proposal, advanced by US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos, calls for a 90‑day ceasefire, followed by negotiations to end the conflict and restart the transition to civilian rule.

Amjad Farid, an adviser to Burhan on political and international affairs, told Reuters that the army‑led government had submitted its own amendments, the most prominent being an internationally supervised withdrawal of the RSF from urban areas, yet the United States appeared to overlook these suggestions.

“Mr. Boulos appears to be pressuring us to accept a de facto partition of the country along the lines of the Libyan model,” he told Reuters while speaking in New York during his attendance at the General Assembly.

“Our concern is that Mr. Boulos’s continuing approach seems to legitimize the militia’s continued presence and secure a role for it in Sudan’s future political landscape,” he added, referring to the RSF.

A Sudanese delegation had been slated to meet Boulos in Washington last week to discuss the ceasefire, but the meeting was cancelled after Burhan’s visa was withheld, according to two Sudanese diplomats who requested anonymity due to restrictions on speaking.

The US State Department has not yet responded to a request for comment. Earlier, it stated that neither the RSF nor the armed forces “represent legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan.”

The United States has accused the RSF of genocide and the Sudanese army of committing war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons.

Analysts and officials have long warned that the conflict could result in a de facto division of Sudan resembling Libya’s decades‑long split into rival eastern and western administrations. Since last year, the RSF has sought to establish a parallel government in Nyala, the capital of Darfur, appointing ministers and deploying police, though it has yet to create formal public services or institutions such as schools, hospitals, and courts.

After recent battlefield setbacks, the RSF has issued no recent statements regarding the US proposal, and its leader has affirmed that its fighters will continue the war.

Related

Source link