No negotiations or ceasefire until the RSF is vanquished, according to Sudanese Army Chief Burhan

Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, declared on Wednesday that talks and a truce would not take place until the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were vanquished.

According to a statement from the sovereign council, Al-Burhan, who is also the general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (Saf), delivered the comments to an army force in the northern Sudanese state of River Nile.

“There will be no negotiations, no peace, and no ceasefire except after defeating this rebellion… so this country can live in peace,” Al-Burhan stated.

Al-Burhan made his comments the day following bloody skirmishes in the state of North Kordofan between the Saf and the RSF.

The army’s Fifth Infantry Division claimed successes in El Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, the Saf said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

But in a statement released on Wednesday, the RSF claimed to have repulsed an offensive in North Kordofan state by the Saf.

The US, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) have all proposed peace measures to end the military conflict in Sudan, but they have all failed thus far.

The UN estimates that over 18 million people in Sudan suffer from severe food insecurity, and that roughly 25 million people in all need humanitarian aid and protection.

Based on recent estimates from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), since the conflict between the Saf and the RSF began on April 15, 2023, about 15,000 deaths have been reported and 8.2 million people have been internally and externally displaced.