Rapid Support Forces agree to U.S. ceasefire proposal

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the war, according to U.N. figures, although humanitarian groups say the real death toll is likely several times higher.

The RSF said it looked forward to “the implementation of the agreement and the immediate start of discussions on the modalities of a cessation of hostilities.”

Fighting has raged in Sudan since the army, controlled by the country’s commander-in-chief and de facto leader, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, then ruling partners, clashed over plans to integrate their forces.

Burhan and his former deputy, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo — a former camel trader widely known as Hemedti who leads the RSF — were leaders of a 2019 counterinsurgency that led to the ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir.

Two years later, they agreed to govern together after a coup that toppled the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

But their alliance fractured spectacularly over how to handle the transition to civilian government, and as neither seemed willing to cede power, war broke out.

The United States determined in January that RSF members and allied militias had committed genocide in Sudan and imposed sanctions on Dagalo. He had previously sanctioned other leaders, as well as army officials.