(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said it had responded "fully and seriously" to mediation efforts in its war with the regular army and welcomed the involvement of US President Donald Trump. The US leader had expressed little interest in Sudan's conflict until the visit to Washington this week of de facto Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman, prompting Trump to declare he would use "the influence of the presidency to bring an immediate halt" to the fighting. In a statement released on its Telegram channel on Friday, the RSF, which has been at war with the army since April 2023, said it was providing a "comprehensive and serious response to these initiatives". The Transitional Sovereignty Council, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said on Wednesday that it was ready to cooperate with Washington. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo and his Janjaweed militia committed atrocities in Darfur while working for the government of longtime Sudanese ruler Omar al-Bashir, before helping to topple him during the country's 2019 uprising. Two years later, Daglo helped his then ally Burhan to overthrow Sudan's fledgling civilian government before turning on him in 2023. Daglo has often portrayed the current war as a fight against "radicals" in the army. There have been months of efforts to negotiate some kind of peace deal in Sudan, to no avail. In September, the so-called "quad" of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States proposed a three-month truce and the exclusion of the current government and the RSF from Sudanese politics. The army has so far rejected the idea of being banned from politics. The conflict is in part being driven by outside actors, with foreign governments accused of providing support to both sides. Shortly after capturing in October the city of El-Fasher, the last army stronghold in the vast Darfur region, the RSF proclaimed its willingness to back a humanitarian truce. According to the UN, there have been ethnically-targeted massacres, looting and and massive displacement in Darfur since the fall of El-Fasher. The army has also been accused of committing atrocities. Tens of thousands have been killed in the war and millions displaced, with Sudan gripped by one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Having secured its control over the west of the country, the RSF has turned its attention east to the oil-rich Kordofan region where it has multiple towns and cities under siege.

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