A top adviser to the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has said US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s remarks on halting weapons supplies “jeopardise ceasefire efforts”.
In his remarks yesterday, Mr Rubio called for international powers to stop sending military support to the RSF, the paramilitary group which has been at war with the Sudanese Army since 2023.
“This needs to stop. They’re clearly receiving assistance from outside,” Mr Rubio said.
In a statement on X, Elbasha Tibeig, adviser to RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, dismissed Mr Rubio’s comments as “an unsuccessful step” that does not serve global efforts aimed at reaching a humanitarian ceasefire.
Mr Tibeig said Mr Rubio’s comments may lead to an escalation of the fighting.
The US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – known as the Quad – have been working on ways to end the war.
The war began in April 2023 after the Sudanese army and RSF, then partners, clashed over plans to integrate.
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Last week, the RSF said they had agreed to a US-led proposal for a humanitarian ceasefire. Mr Rubio doesn’t believe the RSF intends to comply with that agreement.
“The RSF has concluded that they’re winning and they want to keep going,” he said yesterday.
He added that they’re “not just fighting a war, which war alone is bad enough. They’re committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately”.
The war has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation, and displaced millions more. Aid groups say that the true death toll could be much higher.
The RSF is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity across Sudan since the war started. Most recently, there were reports of mass killings during the fall of Al Fashir, a city which was recently captured by the RSF.
A Sky News investigation into events in Al Fashir found thousands were targeted in ‘killing fields’ around the Sudanese city.
Marco Rubio did not specify which countries he was referring to in his calls to halt arms supplies, but US intelligence assessments have found that the United Arab Emirates, a close US ally, has been supplying weapons.
Previous reporting on Sky News has supported allegations that the UAE militarily supports the RSF, though the country officially denies it.
“I can just tell you, at the highest levels of our government, that case is being made and that pressure is being applied to the relevant parties,” Mr Rubio said.
