CAIRO: The head of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces admitted in a speech to fighters on Sunday that the group had withdrawn from the capital Khartoum, which rival army forces have retaken.
The comment from RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo came three days after the group said there would be “no retreat and no surrender” and that its forces had “repositioned”, despite the army’s declaration on Thursday that the capital was “free” of the paramilitaries after nearly two years of war.
“I confirm to you that we have indeed left Khartoum, but… we will return with even stronger determination,” Daglo said in the speech posted to social media.
The war has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises. More than 12 million people have been uprooted, tens of thousands killed, and a UN-backed assessment declared famine in parts of the country.
“All those who think that there are negotiations or agreements in process with this diabolical movement are mistaken,” he continued, in reference to the army. “We have neither agreement nor discussion with them — only the language of arms.”
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Saturday also vowed not to back down, after a decisive blitz in which the army reclaimed the presidential palace, the war-damaged airport and other key sites in the city centre.
“We will neither forgive, nor compromise, nor negotiate,” Burhan said, adding that victory would only be complete when “the last rebel has been eradicated from the last corner of Sudan”.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said Washington hoped to do more diplomatically to end the war in Sudan.
Rubio said he was “engaged” on Sudan and had discussed the war in recent days with international players including Kenyan President William Ruto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken tried extensively to broker an end to the war but ultimately voiced disappointment at the failure to do so and accused both sides of committing atrocities.
The United States has imposed sanctions on both sides. It accused the army of attacks on civilians and said the RSF had “committed genocide” in the western region of Darfur.
The war has carved Sudan in two: the army holds sway in the east and north while the RSF controls most of Darfur in the west, and parts of the south.
