SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has categorically rejected mediation by the so-called “Quad” group on ending the war, and accused senior US adviser Musad Boulos of lying about the role of Islamists in the military.
Speaking to senior officers in Omdurman, Burhan said “it is impossible to accept the Quad as a mediator in this crisis,” dismissing Boulos’s repeated claims about Muslim Brotherhood influence in the army as nothing more than a “scarecrow”.
“The talk about the Brotherhood being inside the armed forces is untrue and a lie,” he said.
Burhan described the Quad’s roadmap as “the worst paper ever presented”, arguing that it “cancels out the armed forces, calls for dissolving all security agencies, and leaves the rebel militia in its areas.”
He went on to say: “We fear that Musad Boulos could become an obstacle to the peace all Sudanese are seeking,” accusing the US official of “threatening and claiming that the government is blocking humanitarian convoys and has used chemical weapons.”
Burhan pledged to keep fighting until the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are defeated.
“We are not war-mongers and we do not reject peace,” he said. “But no one can threaten us or impose conditions on us. No one will force Hamedti or Hamdok on us. Those dreaming of ruling Sudan, starting with Hamdok, will not be able to rule it again.”
His remarks come roughly three weeks after RSF forces completed their takeover of the entire Darfur region and pushed forward in neighbouring Kordofan.
International and regional calls are mounting for the implementation of the Quad plan, which centres on a three-month humanitarian truce, a ceasefire and a political settlement to end a war that has killed around 150,000 people and displaced more than 12 million.
As external pressure to implement the plan has increased, the Muslim Brotherhood’s networks and allied vested-interest groups have stepped up their campaign against the international proposal.
Analysts argue that any serious effort to end Sudan’s crisis must tie a halt to the war to dismantling Brotherhood influence and privilege networks inside the SAF, security services and the economy, and rolling back the broader system of “empowerment”.
On Friday, the European Union urged both warring parties to return to negotiations and agree to an immediate, permanent ceasefire in line with the Quad roadmap issued on 12 September, Sky News Arabia reported.
