Sudan’s newly appointed government and rebel leaders on Wednesday agreed to a ceasefire that finally paves way for an end to long-running insurgencies, following the military’s ouster of autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April, reported Bloomberg.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), signed the pact on behalf of the Sudanese government with armed groups from Sudan’s Darfur region and its southern border states in Juba, the capital of neighboring South Sudan.
The rebel groups who took part in the negotiation talks include the Sudan Revolutionary Front, which is an alliance of Darfur rebel groups, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, which is active in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The initial agreement sets a two-month period for talks, which will start on Oct. 14 and run until the middle of December.
“Today’s signing aims at the implementation of the peace confidence building that came in the constitutional declaration,” said Yasir Arman, the deputy chairman of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLM-North).
“We want to assure you and the people of Sudan that we are ready to pay all the damages of the war and we will assure you that time of war is gone forever,” Dagalo, a member of the joint military-civilian sovereign council, said Wednesday.
Sudan, where mass protests led to the ousting of long-serving President Bashir in April, is now ruled by a joint civilian and military government. The transitional council took over the reins of government in August after military and civilian parties and protest groups signed a three-year power-sharing deal. Notably, the power-sharing agreement calls for the new government to make peace with rebel groups within six months.
The transitional government has also made peace-making with rebels fighting Khartoum as one of its main priorities as it is a key condition for the country’s removal from the United States’ sponsors of terrorism list.
