Sudan's RSF unilaterally declares two-day truce to mark Eid Al Adha

Latest truce comes amid reports of a rebel group attack in south-eastern Sudan

A man transports a sheep after purchasing it from a livestock market ahead of Eid Al Adha in Al Hasaheisa, about 120 kilometres south of Sudan's capital. AFP

The commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces fighting the army in Sudan has unilaterally declared a two-day truce to mark the Eid Al Adha holiday.

Gen Mohamed Dagalo announced the truce in an audio message posted online late on Monday night.

There was no word immediately available from the army on the announcement.

The truce is in place for Tuesday and Wednesday, coinciding with the holiday as millions make the annual pilgrimage to Makkah.

The announcement comes as the UN High Commission for Refugees warned on Tuesday that the number of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan is likely to surpass one million.

So far about 600,000 people have crossed into neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

"Unfortunately, looking at the trends, looking at the situation in Darfur, we're likely to go beyond one million," Raouf Mazou, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, said, giving the commission's estimate for the next six months.

Gen Dagalo, who has not been seen in public since shortly after the war broke out in mid-April, said his men will only fight in self-defence during the truce, which he described as “an opportunity for tolerance and forgiveness between all segments of the Sudanese people".

It's the first time that one of Sudan's warring sides has announced a unilateral truce. Several ceasefires mediated by the US and Saudi Arabia were declared in the course of the war, all of which were breached or not fully observed.

Much of the rest of Gen Dagalo's audio message appeared designed to counter growing international criticism of the abuses committed by the RSF against civilians during the war and to project an image of the RSF as a popular, compassionate force that is fighting for the people.

International criticism has focused on genocidal attacks last week by RSF fighters and allied Arab militiamen against civilians in the western Darfur region, where they killed hundreds from the ethnic African Masalit tribe. Homes and businesses were torched, with shots fired at those trying to flee to neighbouring Chad.

RSF fighters have been accused of looting, abusing civilians and occupying homes and service facilities in Khartoum, where most of the fighting against the army is taking place. They are also suspected of being behind most of the sexual assaults against women documented by activists since the start of the war.

“We will deal with abuses decisively and seriously,” Gen Dagalo said, announcing the creation of a special battlefield tribunal for fighters accused of committing abuses to stand trial. The tribunal will be led by a senior RSF officer.

He blamed some of the abuse on elements of the security services wearing RSF uniforms.

Gen Dagalo last week said he regretted the violence in the Darfur town of Al Geneina, where more than 1,000 civilians were killed, but did not offer an apology.

In his latest audio post, he warned that the army and supporters of the toppled regime of former president Omar Al Bashir were trying to ignite a civil war in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan.

The RSF's forerunner is the notorious Janjaweed militia, a local Darfur outfit that fought on the government's side in a war against ethnic African rebels in the 2000s.

That conflict killed 300,000 and displaced 2.5 million people, according to UN figures.

The Janjaweed are accused of committing war crimes in the Darfur civil war. Al Bashir, who legitimised the Janjaweed more than a decade ago and renamed it the RSF, was himself indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes in Darfur.

Al Bashir has been in detention in Sudan since his ousting in April 2019.

The continuing army-RSF war has forced 2.5 million people to flee their homes and created a major humanitarian crisis. Of those displaced, more than 500,000 have found refuge in neighbouring nations. There are no accurate estimates of the death toll among civilians, but the Health Ministry last week said at least 3,000 have been killed and twice as many injured. The actual figure is believed to be much higher.

The UN mission in Sudan, meanwhile, said hundreds of civilians had crossed the border into Ethiopia from the southern Blue Nile province to seek safety due to clashes on Sunday and Monday between the army and a local rebel group. Others appeared set to head north to Damazin, the provincial capital, it said.

Clashes linked to tribal tensions in the Blue Nile State left hundreds dead last year.

The rebel group, Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, last week clashed with the army in South Kordofan state, raising fears the conflict could spread across Sudan's southern regions.

The war between the army and the RSF is essentially over supremacy at a time when the nation's internationally-backed democratic transition was derailed by a 2021 military coup jointly led by army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo, one-time allies, who are now sworn enemies.