Sudan's army chief asks Trump to end war

Port SUDAN, Sudan

Sudan's army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been at war with a rival paramilitary group since April 2023, urged US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace.

"The Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president's honesty and work with us—and those in the region who genuinely seek peace—to end this war," Sudan's de facto leader wrote in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal.

Attempts to broker peace between Burhan and his former deputy, Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, have repeatedly failed throughout the war, which has killed tens of thousands, displaced 12 million people, and resulted in the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Trump took an interest in the war for the first time last week, vowing to end it after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged him to do so.

"The Sudanese agree that Mr Trump is a leader who speaks directly and acts decisively." Many believe he has the courage to confront the foreign actors who are prolonging our suffering," Burhan wrote.

The army chief refrained from naming the United Arab Emirates, which he has repeatedly accused of supporting the RSF—an accusation the UAE has consistently denied.

The United States and the UAE, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are currently attempting to broker a truce.

Both the army and the RSF have previously blocked negotiations brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Burhan's 1,200-word piece published Wednesday stated that the choice was "between a sovereign state trying to protect its citizens and a genocidal militia bent on destroying communities."

Burhan's government is internationally recognised, and the US determined in January that the RSF committed genocide in the western region of Darfur.

However, his own forces have been accused of atrocities since the war began, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

The career soldier, who in 2021 worked with Daglo to remove civilians from a transitional government, wrote on Wednesday, "I long recognised that the RSF was a powder keg."

RSF commander Daglo, whose fighters were originally contracted by Khartoum to fight its wars on Sudan's borders, became Burhan's right-hand man following Sudan's 2018-2019 uprising.

On April 15, 2023, a long-simmering power struggle between them escalated into all-out war.