CAIRO, May 3. /TASS/. Armed clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and the country’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces may cease within a week or two, Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Tuesday.
"A truce will possibly be reached in Sudan within one or two weeks," Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying by the Al-Sharq television channel.
In his opinion, "the people of Sudan sustained enormous losses and casualties as a result of the conflict." The secretary-general also said the hostilities "present a threat for the entire region."
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy in 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 550 people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.