South Sudanese Ministry Confirms Warring Sides In Sudan Agree To Seven-Day Ceasefire

South Sudanese Foreign Affairs Ministry on Tuesday confirmed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, on Tuesday agreed to a seven-day ceasefire starting Thursday, reported The Arab News.

On Tuesday, the South Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement that the May 4-11 cease-fire deal, which was negotiated by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, will pave the way for peace talks between the warring factions.

It said that President Kiir, during a telephonic conversation with the two military leaders, stressed the importance of a longer ceasefire and of naming envoys to peace talks, to which both sides had agreed.

“The government of the Republic of South Sudan has obtained the consent of the two parties to the current conflict in Sudan to name their representatives to peace talks to be held at any venue of their choice,” Pauline Adhong Malok, the spokesperson for South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a media briefing in Juba.

Notably, South Sudanese President Kiir is leading a team of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Assembly of the Heads of State that is trying to negotiate an end to the ongoing armed conflict in Sudan.

Sudan’s ongoing conflict is currently in its third week. The violent clashes, mostly concentrated in the capital of Khartoum, have led to a mass exodus of civilians to Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and other neighboring countries.

The clashes between the army and the paramilitary force have killed over 500 people and injured over 4,000 others so far. More than 100,000 people have fled to other countries.

On Monday, the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme said it has decided to resume its humanitarian work in the safer parts of the country after a pause earlier in the conflict.