Sudan’s Burhan agrees to UN call for one-week truce in embattled El Fasher

June 27, 2025 (PORT SUDAN) – Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has agreed to a United Nations call for a one-week humanitarian truce in the embattled city of El Fasher, the last major city in the Darfur region outside the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The agreement was reached during a phone call with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday, Burhan’s office said in a statement. The statement added that Burhan stressed the need for existing U.N. Security Council resolutions on the conflict to be implemented.

El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has been besieged by the RSF since April 2024, sparking intense fighting with the army and its allies that has killed numerous civilians and crippled infrastructure.

The siege has caused severe food and medicine shortages, which residents say worsened after army airdrops of aid ceased in April when an army cargo plane was shot down.

The governor of the Darfur region, Minni Arko Minawi, an ally of the army, welcomed the truce. “The Sudanese government is categorically and unconditionally committed to this humanitarian truce,” Minnawi wrote on his Facebook page, urging U.N. agencies to deliver aid.

He called on the RSF to cease what he called “treacherous methods,” citing alleged attacks on civilian camps and the looting of a U.N. aid convoy.

During the call, Guterres also welcomed Burhan’s recent appointment of Kamil Idris as Prime Minister, according to a statement from Burhan’s office. The appointment in May was the first since the former Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, resigned in early 2022.

The move has been opposed by some civilian political groups who fear it could entrench military rule following Burhan’s 2021 coup, which derailed a transition to democracy.