Sudan’s army leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has expressed his willingness to have discussions with the leader of the rebel forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, in an attempt to bring peace to their war-torn nation.
The conflict between these two leaders has been raging since April, resulting in the tragic loss of over 5,000 lives and displacing more than five million people.
Gen Burhan, who took control of Sudan through a coup in 2021, made this statement in a rare interview following his address to the UN General Assembly in New York.
He leads the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and is currently on a global diplomatic tour to seek international support and legitimacy for his leadership, despite not yet transferring power to civilian authorities.
In his conversation with the BBC, General Burhan denied accusations that his forces were deliberately targeting civilians, despite claims by the UN and humanitarian organizations of indiscriminate air strikes on residential areas.
He expressed confidence in achieving victory but mentioned that the fighting in the capital city, Khartoum, had forced him to relocate his headquarters to Port Sudan.
General Burhan emphasized his readiness for negotiations with Gen Dagalo (also known as Hemedti) on the condition that both sides commit to protecting civilians, as agreed during talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May.
He stated, “If the leadership of these mutinous forces has the desire to return to its senses and pull its troops out of the residential areas and return to its barracks, then we will sit with any of them…
Whenever he commits to what was agreed in Jeddah, we will sit to resolve this problem.”
Hemedti also expressed his willingness for political talks in a recent video message.
However, previous ceasefire discussions between the two generals have not resulted in a reduction in hostilities.
Addressing concerns about Sudan potentially becoming a failed state like Somalia or a divided country like Libya, General Burhan asserted, “Sudan will remain united.
Sudan will remain a state intact, not a failed state.
We don’t want what happened in the other countries you mentioned.
The Sudanese people are now united behind one cause, ending this mutiny peacefully or by combat.”
The United Nations has observed that neither warring party seems close to achieving a decisive military victory.
While Gen Burhan expressed confidence in defeating the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), he admitted that the ongoing conflict had disrupted normal activities in Khartoum, making it a war zone.
Despite evidence of civilian casualties resulting from indiscriminate airstrikes in residential areas, particularly in Khartoum, General Burhan denied deliberately targeting civilians.
He stated, “There are fabrications of some stories by the rebel forces, they bomb civilians and film it as if it was the armed forces.
We are professional forces, we work with precision and select our targets in areas where only the enemy is present.
We don’t bomb civilians and we don’t target residential areas.”
The conflict in Sudan has not only claimed numerous lives but has also rekindled tribal conflicts, especially in Darfur, where RSF and allied militias have been accused of mass killings, rape, and torture.
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