DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates called on Tuesday for a ceasefire in Sudan during the coming holy month of Ramadan, a UAE official said, a call rejected by the Sudanese army, as the country’s civil war approaches the two-year mark.
The army considers the UAE to be an aggressor of the war, accusing it of arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, accusations U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have said are credible. The UAE denies these charges.
The war in Sudan has created the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, with more than 12 million people displaced, half the population hungry, and increasing fragmentation of the impoverished country.
“As we approach the holy month of Ramadan, a time of mercy and compassion, the UAE calls on all parties to honour this sacred period with a humanitarian ceasefire,” the UAE official said.
“We do not accept a Ramadan ceasefire until the siege is broken on all cities and areas that are besieged,” a high-level army source told Reuters when asked for comment.
The RSF is currently engaged in an assault on the city of al-Fashir, the army’s last remaining stronghold in the Darfur region, as it loses ground to the army in the capital Khartoum.
The paramilitary force did not respond to a request for comment.
Alongside the ceasefire, the UAE official said the UAE is planning to hold a summit on Friday in Addis Ababa, alongside the African Union, aiming to attract financing to the humanitarian effort in Sudan, adding it would announce $200 million in funding.
On Monday the Sudanese government rejected the summit idea, saying it represented a “crime and aggression against an African nation seeking to protect its land and sovereignty,” given the UAE’s alleged complicity in the war, in a statement by Burhan’s deputy on the country’s Sovereign Council, Malik Agar.
“Unfortunately, the Sudanese army has sought to distort the role of the UAE by falsifying facts … These allegations will not divert the UAE’s attention from its primary objective, which is aimed at promoting stability,” the UAE official said.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Frances Kerry)
