LONDON, April 29. /TASS/. Talks between Sudan’s dueling sides cannot be held until fighting ends, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), said in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.
"Cease hostilities. After that we can have negotiations. <...> We don’t want to destroy Sudan," he said. Dagalo blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces’ chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, for the violence despite the extension of a humanitarian ceasefire.
Dagalo said he was looking forward to having a fully civilian government "today - before tomorrow," as he accused his opponent of being led by the radical Islamic front leaders.
For his part, Sudan’s Army blamed their opponents from the RSF for violating the ceasefire. The Arab republic’s Foreign Ministry also accused the paramilitary force of attacking hospitals and using civilians as human shields. Sudanese diplomats on Thursday denied media reports of the potential initiation of talks between Sudan’s army and the RSF.
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the two generals, army chief al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the RSF head, Dagalo, who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council. The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists.
On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the country’s health ministry, more than 600 people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.