THE Sudanese army on Tuesday rejected a proposed three-month truce by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group and denounced the move as a “political manoeuvre” by the United States.

Sudan’s Information Minister Khaled Ali said that the truce announcement from RSF leader Mohamed Hamden Dagalo ignored the war crimes committed by paramilitary troops in al-Fasher, the North Darfur capital.

Sudan’s top military commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, slammed the US-backed truce initiative as benefiting the RSF and the United Arab Emirates, which many in the international community believe to be backing the paramilitary group.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are said to be providing military support to the Sudanese military.

The UAE, Egypt and the Saudis are all allies of the US in the region. All deny any involvement in the conflict.

General Burhan described Washington’s proposal as unacceptable. He said the proposed deal would remove the presence of the armed forces and the dissolution of all security agencies. The general said this would leave rebel militia to operate in their territories and was a “clear call for the division of Sudan.”

RSF General Dagalo announced the proposed truce on Monday, saying it would improve the protection of civilians and aid the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance.

He said that the decision was reached in co-operation with the so-called Quad, composed of the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the US, as well as the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

The commander described the unilateral pause as “the first step toward achieving a political solution” to the conflict.

The statement comes after RSF was accused of committing a massacre of at least 2,200 people in al-Fasher.

Sudan was plunged into open fighting in April 2023 when the military and the RSF — both responsible in October 2021 for overthrowing the country’s 2019 people’s revolution — fell out in a power struggle.