He is a contributor to Fikra Forum. Although the U. Under closer scrutiny, the Declaration of Commitment in fact leaves much to be desired and provides little assurance of follow-through on behalf of either the RSF or the SAF.
The points can be summed up as follows:. Distinguishing between civilian and military objectives, as well as respecting public and private organizations.
Allowing the transit of humanitarian aid, protecting workers, and refraining from intervening in humanitarian operations. Enabling necessary actions to be taken, in collaboration with competent authorities, to bury the dead. Ensuring that lower-ranking soldiers abide by International Humanitarian Law and the Declaration of Commitment. Prioritizing talks to negotiate a short-term cease-fire, and then scheduling talks to end hostilities permanently.
In order to sustain humanitarian assistance, however, the objective was to achieve a day ceasefire, which this Declaration does not do. The two parties are already supposed to be bound to these humanitarian laws, and so the Declaration provides nothing new in the way of commitments or assurances. Even if a temporary ceasefire is achieved in subsequent Jeddah Talksโfor which no actual timeline has been givenโits sustainability is dubious.
On the one hand, both parties have broken ceasefire agreements in the past. On the other hand, the internationally-backed ceasefire monitoring system proposed by the mediators, though comprehensive, lacks value if the the consequences of breaking the ceasefire are not punitive measures.
