Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met Sudan’s military ruler Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan in Port Sudan on Tuesday, renewing Cairo’s push for a ceasefire as the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region plunges deeper into humanitarian catastrophe. Abdelatty reaffirmed Egypt’s support for a peace plan launched in September by a mediation group including the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, calling for a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a nine-month political dialogue to end the war.
He also condemned the atrocities committed in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which was captured last week by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after weeks of heavy fighting. The city’s fall has triggered a mass exodus of nearly 90,000 people, many fleeing through dangerous routes without food, water, or medical care, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM). UN officials and aid groups report that hundreds of civilians have been killed, and there are growing accounts of looting, sexual violence, and summary executions carried out by RSF fighters allegations the group denies.
The war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by Burhan and the RSF commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), has already killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over 12 million, according to the World Health Organization. While the RSF said last week it had accepted the proposed humanitarian truce, the Sudanese army insisted it would only agree if the RSF withdrew from civilian areas and surrendered its weapons conditions the paramilitary group has rejected. The stalemate underscores the deep mistrust between the two former allies, who once shared power in a transitional government after the ouster of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Egypt, which shares a long border with Sudan and fears regional spillover, has positioned itself as a key mediator. Cairo has hosted multiple rounds of talks between Sudanese factions but has struggled to achieve lasting progress amid competing peace initiatives from regional and international actors. Humanitarian agencies warn that without immediate access and funding, aid operations in Darfur and Kordofan could collapse entirely. “Time is running out for millions trapped between violence and hunger,” the IOM said in a statement Tuesday.
