Burhan denies Bahrain talks, vows to crush RSF as war enters new phase
May 29, Khartoum — Sovereignty Council Chairman and Commander-in-Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan denied on Thursday that any consultations had taken place in Bahrain, flatly rejecting a recent report by Middle East Eye, and vowed to eliminate the Rapid Support Forces entirely.
“What Middle East Eye reported is completely untrue,” Burhan said during an Eid al-Adha address to the armed forces leadership at General Command headquarters. “The talk of consultations in Bahrain has no basis in truth whatsoever.”
The denial is the first direct public response from Burhan to the Middle East Eye report published last week, which cited unnamed sources as saying he had expressed readiness to open dialogue with the UAE under certain conditions, including an end to Emirati support for the RSF. The outlet also reported that Bahrain was leading mediation efforts to narrow the gap between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi.
Burhan’s Gulf tour on 12 and 13 May — which included Riyadh, Muscat, and Manama — was largely shrouded in secrecy. Only his meeting with the King of Bahrain was officially announced, with a statement confirming the two sides discussed the situation in Sudan and ways to end the war. The Sovereignty Council press office had earlier implicitly denied the Middle East Eye report, saying Burhan had not recently spoken to any media outlet. The outlet’s editors maintained the accuracy of their report on X, saying a Sovereignty Council interpreter reviewed the text before publication was authorised.
Addressing the armed forces on the occasion of the Eid holiday, Burhan assured the Sudanese people that the military was moving with “firm steps toward crushing the rebels and eliminating them permanently.” He declared: “There will be no RSF militia in Sudan, no Janjaweed from this day on, and no room for any rebel in our country.”
He said the army was advancing methodically and precisely, and that upon emerging from the war Sudan would have laid the foundation for “a real army different from the previous one in terms of equipment, efficiency, and organisational structure.”
Burhan added that the army would soon reach Darfur “city by city” to clear it of rebel forces, and praised the contributions of allied forces, mobilised fighters, and popular resistance groups. He also welcomed fighters who had been “deceived” into joining the rebellion, saying the door of the armed forces was open to all who lay down their arms, as well as to politicians who had not taken hostile positions against the army and the state.