Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has declared a four-month ceasefire in two States of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where recent fighting between troops and rebels has left scores of casualties, the Army has said.
Bashir’s forces have been battling the rebel Sudan People’s liberation Movement-North (SPlM-N) in the two States since 2011, and neither side has decisively gained an upper hand in the fighting.
“President Bashir announced four months of ceasefire in Blue Nile and South Kordofan starting from today,” army spokesman Brigadier Ahmed Khalifa al-Shami told AFP on Friday.
“This gesture of goodwill from the Government is to give the armed groups a chance to join the peace process and to surrender their arms.”
The ceasefire was anticipated ahead of the start of the rainy season that leaves roads in the these regions impassable.
Khartoum limits press access to the war-hit border regions, making it nearly impossible to verify the often-contradictory reports from the Army and the SPlM-N about fighting there.
Bashir had announced a similar ceasefire in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and the western Darfur region — the scene of a separate insurgency — in late 2015 and extended it by a month at the beginning of this year.