Sudan’s prime minister has proposed a wide-ranging peace initiative to end a nearly 1,000-day war with a rival paramilitary force.
Kamil Idris, told the Security Council his plan calls for a ceasefire monitored by the United Nations, African Union and Arab League, and the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from all areas they occupy, their placement in supervised camps and their disarmament.
But the United States urged both sides to accept the Trump administration’s call for an immediate humanitarian truce.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the Sudan national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting, much of it attributed to the RSF, including widespread mass killings and rapes, and ethnically motivated violence.
This has amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international rights groups.
Proposal is ‘homemade’
In an indirect reference to the truce supported by the US and key mediators Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, known as the Quad, Idris stressed to the UN Security Council that the government’s proposal is “homemade - not imposed on us.”
In early November, the Rapid Support Forces agreed to a humanitarian truce.
Idris said unless the paramilitary forces were confined to camps, a truce had “no chance for success.” He challenged the 15 members of the Security Council to back his proposal.
“This initiative can mark the moment when Sudan steps back from the edge and the international community — You! You! — stood on the right side of history," the Sudanese prime minister said.
He said the council should “be remembered not as a witness to collapse, but as a partner in recovery.”
‘Without preconditions’
US deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos, who spoke to the council before Idris, said the Trump administration has offered a humanitarian truce as a way forward and “We urge both belligerents to accept this plan without preconditions immediately.”
UAE Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab, a member of the Quad, said there is an immediate opportunity to implement the humanitarian truce and get aid to Sudanese civilians in desperate need.
“Lessons of history and present realities make it clear that unilateral efforts by either of the warring parties are not sustainable and will only prolong the war,” he warned.
The war in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher. The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people displaced, disease outbreaks and famine spreading in parts of the country.
