A Sudanese man who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, walks past makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad on May 13, 2023 — Reuters file photo KHARTOUM, Dec 11 (Reuters): An African regional body involved in efforts to mediate over the war in Sudan says it has secured a commitment from warring parties to implement a ceasefire and to hold a political dialogue aimed at resolving the conflict.
There was no immediate comment from Sudan's army or the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been locked since mid-April in a conflict that has devastated the capital Khartoum and triggered waves of ethnic killings in Darfur despite several diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting.
Eyewitnesses reported blasts at the major Al-Jaili oil refinery on the outskirts of Khartoum on Sunday, while both sides said there had been casualties when a Red Cross convoy came under fire in the capital.
At talks on Saturday in Djibouti, the current chair of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, agreed to a one-on-one meeting with RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, an IGAD statement said.
In a phone call, Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, also agreed to the ceasefire proposal and a meeting with Burhan, the statement said.
Both Hemedti and Burhan had "accepted the principle of meeting within 15 days in order to pave the way for a series of confidence-building measures between the two parties that lead to the launch of a political process," said Alexis Mohammed, adviser to Djibouti's president.
Earlier, in an address the Djibouti meeting, Burhan accused the RSF of "barbaric attacks" but said the army had not closed the door on finding a peaceful solution.
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