The head of the Sudanese army, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhane, called on Monday August 28 in Port Sudan to “end the rebellion” of the paramilitaries, refusing “discussions” after more than four months of bloody war. Since the de facto head of state left a few days ago the army headquarters where he had been besieged since April 15 by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, nicknamed “Hemetti” , rumors of negotiations between generals abroad are increasing.

“No one helped me out of the army HQ, I didn’t come out at the cost of an agreement,” General Burhane fired back, as commentators speculate on an agreement between the two camps allowing him to pass. “We are mobilizing everywhere to put an end to the rebellion [of] mercenaries from all over the world,” he told soldiers and journalists at a naval base. “Now is not the time for talks, we are focusing on the war,” he continued, as General Daglo had proposed on Sunday on X (ex-Twitter) a plan titled “Renaissance of Sudan – Vision for a new state.

Still fighting in Khartoum

This long roadmap includes “a single, professional, national and apolitical army” – the bone of contention that led to the war in April. When he left Khartoum on Thursday, observers noted a shift in General Burhane’s speech. He no longer threatened “rebellion.” On Monday, his speech changed.

The RSF “have invaded Khartoum (…) and cities in Darfur, they have nothing to do with the Sudanese”, he said again the day after his arrival in Port-Sudan, the only city to have a working port and airport. The RSF “started this war saying, ‘This is the army of the old regime and the Islamists.’ It’s a lie, “he said again as paramilitaries and civilians accuse him of seeking to restore the military-Islamic dictatorship of Omar Al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019.

Fighting continues in Khartoum, where paramilitaries fire at fighter jets flying overhead, residents report. The war has claimed nearly 5,000 lives, according to the NGO Acled. But the real toll would be much higher because many areas of the country are completely cut off from the world and both sides refuse to communicate their losses.