Warring sides in Sudan agree to three-day ceasefire, Blinken announces
Mike Brest
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The two warring forces in Sudan have agreed to a three-day ceasefire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday afternoon.
The Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, agreed to the 72-hour ceasefire “following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours,” Blinken said, though the two sides have agreed to multiple ones over the last week and a half, all of which failed.
US MILITARY WILL NOT BE AIDING AMERICANS STUCK IN DETERIORATING SUDAN CRISIS
“During this period, the United States urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire,” he added. “To support a durable end to the fighting, the United States will coordinate with regional and international partners, and Sudanese civilian stakeholders, to assist in the creation of a committee to oversee the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of a permanent cessation of hostilities and humanitarian arrangements in Sudan.”
The deteriorating security situation in Khartoum, the country’s capital, prompted the U.S. and other Western countries to evacuate embassy personnel.
Three U.S. Army MH-47 Chinook twin-rotor heavy-lift helicopters touched down outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum on Saturday evening, where special operation commandos shepherded about 100 American diplomats and their families. The military deployed additional capabilities to the region in the days before the evacuation was conducted, and they remain there looking for ways to improve safety on the 500-mile land route to Port Sudan.
U.S. Africa Command has established a deconfliction line with the two rival sides, which Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said “helps to enable good communication among our allies and partners.”
“Right now, we believe that the best way for us to help facilitate people’s departure is in fact to support this land evacuation route, as well as work with allies and partners who are working on their own evacuation plans as well,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House briefing on Monday.
The Pentagon is involved with these efforts after moving additional resources into the region last week, while President Joe Biden has asked for “every conceivable option” to help Americans who are still there, Sullivan said.
“DOD is at present considering actions that may include: use of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats,” said Joint Staff Operations Director Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims at Saturday night’s briefing, adding that another step could be “the employment of naval assets outside the Port of Sudan to potentially help Americans who arrive at the port.”
There are roughly 16,000 Americans in Sudan, many of which are dual citizens, though the Biden administration has warned that this number is inexact.
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“If there’s a safe way to get out, we’re helping guide them and give them information,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said on CNN Monday morning. “We’re in touch with hundreds of American citizens that are there who may want to leave. It’s up to them, of course, to decide to do that. We’re doing the best we can to give them the information they need.”
Last Friday, Kirby said that Americans “should have no expectation of a U.S.-government-coordinated evacuation at the time” and that he expects this is “going to remain the case,” though he pointed out the State Department issued a level-four travel advisory against Sudan last October, which is meant to warn U.S. citizens not to travel there.