Sudan’s army chief said on Friday that the military under his leadership was committed to a peaceful transition to civilian rule, in his first public remarks since a week-long conflict between his troops and a powerful paramilitary force upended life in Africa’s third-largest nation.

But the army commander, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is Sudan’s de facto leader, has derailed the country’s transition to democratic rule in the past. In late 2021, he carried out a coup that toppled the civilian Prime Minister and shattered a fragile power-sharing agreement between the military and civilians. And this month, just as he was expected to hand over power to civilians, his forces and those loyal to his main rival, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan, began clashing violently in Khartoum, the capital, and other cities.

General al-Burhan also did not say on Friday whether the army would commit to the latest ceasefire that the paramilitary group led by General Hamdan, the Rapid Support Forces, said it had agreed to based on appeals from Sudanese civilian coalitions. Instead, he said, “Your armed forces are advancing to defeat the rebels.”

The proposed cessation of fighting was intended to allow people to gather for the Id holiday on Friday which marks the end of Ramazan, to evacuate loved ones and to seek food and medical care. Instead, residents in several neighbourhoods of Khartoum reported intense shelling and gunfights in the streets, and many across Sudan continued to face a desperate situation.

New York Times News Service