UNITED NATIONS — Sudan’s military leader is openly defying a U.S.-backed ceasefire push after Washington withheld his visa to attend the U.N. General Assembly, exposing a widening rift over a war that has become not only one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, but also a regional struggle for influence stretching to the Red Sea.
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s armed forces and de facto leader, had been expected in New York during UNGA before the Trump administration withheld his visa amid a dispute over a proposed 90-day humanitarian truce. Days later, Burhan struck a defiant tone from Khartoum.
"We will keep our heads high. We will not accept bargaining, sell ourselves cheaply to anyone or bow to anyone," Burhan said Saturday, according to State Department has accused both Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, of failing to make serious commitments to an immediate truce.
"Neither the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces, nor their respective leaders, represent legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan," National Security Council who also served as chief of staff to successive U.S. presidential special envoys for Sudan, said his understanding was that Washington had asked the Sudanese to send a delegation both to the U.N. and to Washington for talks on a ceasefire.
He said the Sudanese were preparing to do so before Washington, in his understanding, made Burhan’s visa contingent on signing the ceasefire agreement before traveling.
"It doesn’t fully make sense why the United States took this decision at the last minute," Hudson told Fox News Digital.
Farid said the central dispute is whether the RSF would be required to withdraw from civilian areas it controls. He argued that freezing current lines of control risks turning a temporary ceasefire into a de facto partition of Sudan.
The dispute comes against the backdrop of a brutal civil war that erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.
Both sides have been accused of serious violations, but Hudson told Fox News Digital that treating their records as interchangeable obscures an important distinction.
"The RSF is committing war crimes on a scale and with an intention that the army does not," Hudson said.
Hudson said SAF has struck civilian targets and committed war crimes, including through drone attacks, but said the RSF’s record goes significantly further.
"They have committed mass rape, mass killing, torture, sexual enslavement," Hudson said, arguing that Western descriptions of "both sides" can create the impression that the two forces are committing the same crimes "on the same scale or with the same intention."
U.N. investigators have also drawn distinctions while documenting abuses by both forces.
A U.N. fact-finding missionRed Sea region," he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said foreign powers are central to prolonging the war. "What’s happening in Sudan would not be happening were it not for external actors supporting one side or the other," Rubio told reporters during UNGA week, describing U.S. efforts to secure even limited humanitarian agreements as "very frustrating."
Rubio said the parties have repeatedly agreed to commitments only to abandon them when one side believes it is gaining the upper hand. "There are external actors. I’m not going to single them out. You know who they are," Rubio said. "That war and that conflict and that crisis would not be happening were it not for the active participation of external actors that are feeding one side of that conflict or another."
He said meaningful progress would depend on those states pressuring their respective partners in Sudan.
"Until those external actors are prepared to use influence and pressure their respective proxies to live up to the commitments that they’re making, we’re not going to make progress," Rubio said.
Sudan’s strategic value goes beyond geography. The country has significant gold, agricultural and livestock resources and sits at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East. The World Bank has described Sudan as rich in fertile land, water and minerals, while noting its substantial gold production and agricultural potential.
Sudan also controls critical infrastructure used to transport South Sudanese crude oil to the Red Sea. A World Bank assessment says South Sudan’s oil has historically traveled through pipelines across Sudan to Port Sudan, its key export route.
Hudson said that broader regional competition helps explain why Washington has struggled to force Sudan’s outside backers to pull away.
"The United States is not going to use the limited political capital that it has with Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Turkey or UAE to get them to control their support to one side or the other in this conflict," he said.
Hudson also questioned Washington’s diplomatic strategy, arguing that pressure on Burhan has not been matched by sufficient direct engagement inside Sudan.
He said Massad Boulos, President Donald Trump’s senior advisor for Arab and African affairs, has never traveled to Sudan while attempting to mediate the conflict.
"He’s trying to mediate peace in a country that he’s never been to," Hudson said, arguing that Washington needs more "personal diplomacy" and less reliance on public statements and social media.
"If we want these people to sign a ceasefire deal, then they have to trust us," Hudson said. "And right now we’ve given them no reason to do so."
The U.N. acknowledged that international efforts have so far failed to stop the fighting. "Unfortunately, we are not seeing the war abating," Dujarric said, reiterating the U.N. position that "there is no military solution to the conflict," and noting Washington’s diplomatic role as the US and African Union co-chaired a Sept. 23 meeting bringing together the Quad and Quintet diplomatic groupings.
"The immediate priority is to stop the killing and secure a cessation of hostilities, while creating the conditions for a credible political process," he said.