Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has agreed to a proposal from the US for a humanitarian ceasefire, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The RSF issued the statement, saying it was open to talks on a cessation of hostilities, less than two weeks after taking the long-besieged city of el-Fasher in the western Darfur region.
The 500-day siege of the capital of North Darfur state saw the blocking of humanitarian aid, resulting in famine conditions, outbreaks of cholera and the displacement of thousands of people.
The UN said it had received “horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” since the takeover.
Nationwide, more than 150,000 people have died and some 12 million people have fled their homes since the start of the war in 2023.
Both the RSF and the Sudanese army have agreed to various ceasefire proposals during their two-and-a-half-year-old war, though none have succeeded.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has said it was working towards ending fighting in Sudan. The Sudanese army did not immediately respond to the announcement.
"The Rapid Support Forces also looks forward to implementing the agreement and immediately commencing discussions on the arrangements for a cessation of hostilities and the fundamental principles guiding the political process in Sudan," an RSF statement said.
Earlier this week, the army-led Security and Defense Council met but did not give a definitive answer to the proposal, though influential leaders and allies within the army have expressed their disapproval.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Thursday said the United States continued to engage directly with the parties to facilitate a humanitarian truce.
"We urge both sides to move forward in response to the U.S.-led effort to conclude a humanitarian truce, given the immediate urgency of de-escalating the violence and ending the suffering of the Sudanese people," the spokesperson said.
The United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt called in September for a three-month humanitarian truce in Sudan to be followed by a permanent ceasefire.
Witnesses say the RSF killed and abducted civilians during and after its capture of el-Fasher, including in summary executions, leading to international concern.
Video has shown RSF troops executing a number of unarmed people after seizing the city. The OHCHR also received reports of sexual violence from humanitarian partners on the ground, claiming that at least 25 women were gang raped when RSF forces entered a shelter for displaced people near the university.
The RSF’s leader called on fighters to protect civilians and said violations would be prosecuted.
The Sudanese army and security forces have also been accused by the Emergency Lawyers group, a local human rights organisation, of torturing people to death and employing “execution chambers”.
The RSF has continued to make gains, despite a lack of international support. In June, it was able to take control of land on the border with Egypt and Libya, to the north west. In October, it solidified its grip on Darfur with the capture of el-Fasher.
The Sudanese military has held out in the north and the east, based out of Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Despite access to the vital waterway, RSF drone attacks and Houthi attacks have hampered the delivery of vital humanitarian aid.
The war between the Sudanese army and the RSF erupted in April 2023 when the two forces, then partners in power, clashed over plans to integrate their forces.
The war follows mounting tensions since 2019 over the ousting of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir, who rose to power during a 1989 coup.
The army, in turn, mounted its own coup to get rid of him, but that was overthrown in a joint military-civilian coup in 2021, led by the current leaders of the armed forces and his deputy, the leader of the RSF.
A power struggle lingered as both the head of the army and his deputy clashed over the proposed incorporation of RSF forces into the military, and the direction towards civilian rule.
Clashes broke out and have resulted in a devastating conflict, killing tens of thousands of people, causing hunger to spread across the country and displacing millions of people. It is disputed who shot first.
