Sudan's Al-Burhan boycotts Geneva talks and says he will “fight for 100 years”

The chairman of the Sudanese Transitional Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said his government would not participate in the peace talks with the Rapid Support Forces taking place in Geneva.

“We will not go to Geneva … we will fight for 100 years,” Sudanese army chief al-Burhan said at a press conference in Port Sudan on Saturday.

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The talks, organized by the United States and co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, began behind closed doors on Wednesday. Representatives of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and delegations from several countries in the region, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other African states, as well as the United Nations, were present.

The Sudanese government has expressed concerns about the United Arab Emirates' participation in the dialogue and accused the Emirati government of providing military and financial support to the RSF in the ongoing war in Sudan.

Tom Perrielo, the US special envoy for Sudan, insisted that the talks should continue even without al-Burhan's delegation because the Sudanese people could no longer wait for a ceasefire.

Read more: Sudan war: 1,411 dead, 468 since the first quarter of 2024

The talks ended on Friday without reaching a ceasefire, but progress was made to ensure access of aid via two routes into the country, which is currently facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Meanwhile, Sudan continues to suffer from a growing number of humanitarian crises, including widespread hunger, displacement, lack of medical care and thousands of civilian deaths.

“Until victory”

Previous rounds of talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, did not produce any substantial results. Instead, as the war spread, the SAF increased its opposition to a ceasefire with the RSF.

At the beginning of July, al-Burhan stressed that the SAF would not give in to the will of the mediators and would not negotiate a ceasefire with the RSF.

“We will continue this struggle until victory and I repeat once again that we will not negotiate with an enemy that attacks us and occupies our land,” he said during a visit to Wadi Seidna and Omdurman.

“We will not go to a negotiating table where they [the mediators] want to pull our ears,” he said, adding that the only condition under which the SAF would be willing to negotiate an agreement was the withdrawal of the RSF from the areas under its control.

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