Sudan’s Sovereign Council leader and leader of SAF, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, facing immense international and regional pressure to attend peace talks in Switzerland, announced on Saturday that a delegation had been dispatched to Egypt’s Cairo to discuss the implementation of the Jeddah Declaration.
The US-led talks, which the RSF is attending, aim to end the devastating war that broke out in April 2023, and address the crippling humanitarian crisis that has left half of Sudan’s population of 50 million facing food insecurity.
Hopes for a ceasefire were dashed when SAF announced its decision to boycott talks on Wednesday, claiming that the RSF had failed to implement agreements made in Saudi Arabia last year.
Despite repeated international calls, al-Burhan had refused to participate in the negotiations, which entered their fourth day on Saturday.
But after 4 days of repeated calls for SAF to stop stalling peace talks and participate, al-Burhan decided to send a team to Cairo.
Speaking to a joint Sudanese-Egyptian media delegation on Saturday, al-Burhan said that the U.S. had agreed to meet with a SAF delegation.
“We will send a government delegation to meet them and Saudi Arabia, as sponsors of the Jeddah Declaration, to discuss the steps for its implementation,” al-Burhan said.
Al-Burhan claimed that the Jeddah Declaration mandates the RSF’s withdrawal from civilian homes and public facilities in Khartoum, Al Jazirah, Sennar, and Darfur states.
Jeddah declaration, signed in May 2023, is not a ceasefire agreement and General al-Burhan’s SAF, like the RSF, has not abided by the agreement since its signing in 2023.
General al-Burhan also threatened RSF, claiming military efforts would continue until their forces are expelled.
Al-Burhan added that the SAF was not attending the Geneva talks to negotiate a new agreement.
Sudanese sources also denied media reports that the government had already sent a delegation to Geneva.
