Sudan's army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan said the country's military-aligned government intends to convene a "comprehensive political dialogue" at home to lay down the foundations for a new "political structure" in the war-torn nation.
In a message marking Eid Al Adha, Gen Al Burhan said participants in the proposed dialogue would formulate "principles of governance to unite Sudan and end its repeated crises" and "decide the completion of the civilian democratic transition".
Gen Al Burhan and his former ally turned rival, Gen Mohamed Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, staged a 2021 coup that toppled a government guiding Sudan's transition to democratic rule after the ousting in 2019 of dictator Omar Al Bashir.
The overthrow of the civilian-led government plunged the country into a political crisis and created a security vacuum that contributed to the outbreak of civil war in April 2023 between the armed forces and the RSF.
Now in its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 12 million and left some 20 million facing hunger.
Gen Al Burhan has repeatedly vowed to carry on fighting until the RSF is defeated or surrenders. He has also rejected initiatives by regional and international powers to enter negotiations to find an end to the conflict.
Gen Dagalo, in contrast, has shown more willingness to work for a negotiated end to the war.
In his Eid message, Gen Al Burhan appeared to suggest that RSF representatives and those of pro-democracy alliances based outside Sudan would not participate in the proposed dialogue. He also seemed to reject the resolutions and roadmaps reached in forums on Sudan's future held in Europe, in which neither the RSF nor the armed forces were represented.
"The government of Sudan will issue invitations to all national forces, excluding those whose hands are dripping with the blood of the Sudanese people, and will commit to making available everything that will help the dialogue succeed and its resolutions implemented," he said.
"I emphasise that the Sudanese people will not accept the outcome of conferences and dialogues held in foreign capitals ... and will not accept solutions or dictations ... stemming from the agendas of foreign nations."
A vast afro-Arab nation, Sudan has been torn apart by civil wars, hunger and political upheavals since independence in 1956, with spells of democratic rule repeatedly upended by military coups that placed generals at the helm.
Its military rulers over the years have convened national dialogues with the declared aim of reaching a formula that would ensure political stability and prosperity for the resource-rich but impoverished nation. These invariably dragged on and reached weak or ambivalent resolutions that were never implemented. Meanwhile, civil wars raged unabated in the west and south of the country, and frequent bouts of acute economic crisis bit hard.
The civil war has left the country ruled by rival administrations, with the military-aligned one sitting in Port Sudan on the Red Sea and the RSF's headquartered in Nyala in the western Darfur region, an area roughly the size of France that is completely held by the paramilitary.
The RSF and its allies also control parts of the neighbouring Kordofan region and the southern Blue Nile state, while the army holds the rest of the country including the capital, Khartoum.
The war broke out after months of tension between Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo over their place in a future democratic Sudan. The two generals have been accused of war crimes.
