The Sudanese army commander confirmed that the Rapid Support Forces sought help from “outlaw” groups from several countries
Published on: September 22, 2023: 12:07 AM GST Last updated: September 22, 2023: 01:58 AM GST
The head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and Commander of the Sudanese Army, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, said Thursday that his country is facing a devastating war launched by the Rapid Support Forces and “regional and international parties have allied with them,” as he put it.
Al-Burhan added, in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, that the Rapid Support Forces committed “crimes against humanity and war crimes” in most regions of Sudan, calling on the international community to consider the Rapid Support Forces and those allied with them “terrorist groups.”
Al-Burhan confirmed that the Rapid Support Forces sought the help of groups he described as “outlaws” from several countries in the region and the world, warning that they would be “a spark for the war to spread to other countries around Sudan.”
He added: “Regional and international interventions to support the Rapid Support Forces have become clear, and it is the first spark that will burn the region and the region.”
In his speech, Al-Burhan spoke about efforts to stop the war, and said that the Rapid Support Forces rejected all peaceful solutions and insisted on “destroying the state and exterminating its people.”
Al-Burhan also pointed out that progress would have been achieved in the Jeddah negotiations had it not been for the “intransigence” of the Rapid Support Forces and their refusal to leave residential neighborhoods in Sudan.
He also affirmed his commitment to previous pledges to hand over power to a civilian government by the army, saying, “We still stand by our previous pledges to transfer power to the Sudanese people with broad consensus and national consent, according to which the armed forces will permanently withdraw from political action and the transfer of power will take place through legitimate and peaceful means represented by elections.”
Al-Burhan pointed to “a short transitional phase in which the state is run by a civilian government of independents, during which the current security, humanitarian, economic and reconstruction conditions are addressed, followed by general elections through which the Sudanese choose who will rule them.”
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2023-09-21 20:07:00