Amjad Farid, an adviser to army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, told Reuters on September 30 that a U.S. ceasefire proposal for Sudan could keep the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the country’s political future and push Sudan toward a Libya-style partition. The proposal calls for a 90-day ceasefire, followed by negotiations to end the war and resume the move to civilian rule. Sudan’s army-led government says the United States ignored its proposed changes.
A ceasefire shaped from above
Massad Boulos, U.S. Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs, put forward the plan. Farid said the army-led government’s chief requested change was an internationally monitored RSF withdrawal from urban areas. He said the United States appeared to ignore the proposed changes, leaving the plan’s terms and the future role of an armed militia at the center of talks conducted by state and military authorities.
“Mr Boulos seems to be putting pressure on us to accept a de facto partitioning of the country similar to Libyan model,” Farid said from New York, where he attended the U.N. General Assembly. He added: “Our concern is that the approach Mr Boulos continues to advance appears to accommodate the militia’s continued existence and preserve a place for it in Sudan’s political future.”
The proposed return to civilian rule sits alongside talks about armed forces and political arrangements. The base report describes no grassroots, self-organized response to the proposal and identifies no NGO or nonprofit role. People who would live under any settlement don’t appear as participants in the negotiations described. The named actors are U.S. officials, army authorities and the RSF.
A diplomatic door closes
A Sudanese delegation had prepared to meet Boulos in Washington the previous week to discuss the ceasefire. Two Sudanese diplomats told Reuters, requesting anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak, that the meeting was canceled after Burhan’s visa to attend the U.N. General Assembly was withheld. Reuters had reported the week before that the visa was withheld because Burhan hadn’t accepted the proposal.
The U.S. State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The previous week, it said neither the RSF nor the armed forces “represent legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan.” The United States has accused the RSF of genocide and the army of war crimes, including using chemical weapons. Those accusations point to the grim choices in a proposal negotiated among armed and state powers, not a civilian-led process described in the report.
Partition has a precedent
Sudan’s army and the RSF have fought since April 2023, after falling out over issues including how to integrate their forces during a planned transition to civilian rule. Analysts and officials have long warned that the conflict could produce a de facto division resembling neighboring Libya, split between rival eastern and western administrations for more than a decade.
Since last year, the RSF has sought to establish a parallel government in Nyala, in western Darfur. It has appointed ministers, and some police are active, but the group hasn’t established public services or institutions such as schools, hospitals and courts. After recent battlefield defeats, the RSF has made no recent statements on the U.S. proposal, and its leader has said its fighters intend to continue the war. The ceasefire plan carries competing demands from governments and armed groups, while the promised move to civilian rule remains part of talks still conducted over Sudan’s future.