Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have announced an apparently unilateral three-month humanitarian truce in the country’s civil war.

RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, made the announcement on Monday in a recorded address. The warring Sudanese Armed Forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan did not immediately confirm that any agreement had been reached.

Al-Burhan late on Sunday had rejected a ceasefire proposal put forward by the so-called Quad – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

He took particular issue with the presence in the grouping of the UAE, which has long rejected accusations that it is arming and funding the RSF.

On Monday, Hemedti said the truce seeks to enhance civilian protections and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

He further called the unilateral pause the first step in reaching a political solution to the fighting, which began in April 2023 after a tenuous power sharing agreement between Burhan and Hemedti collapsed.

Fighting has since killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 14 million or more and sparked a humanitarian crisis, with both sides accused of committing abuses.

The RSF took control of the city of el Fasher last month.

Satellite images have shown RSF fighters burning and burying bodies in large numbers in what observers have called an effort to hide evidence of mass killings.

More to come…