Sudan’s military said its top commander, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, survived a drone attack on a military graduation ceremony that killed five people in the east of the country.

The military said in a statement Wednesday that the attack by two drones took place in Gebeit , a town in eastern Sudan , after the ceremony ended. Burhane, who was attending the ceremony, was not injured, according to Lt. Col. Hassan Ibrahim of the military spokesman’s office.

Sudan has been torn apart by war for more than a year between the army and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces . With the fighting taking place in the capital, Khartoum , military leaders are operating mainly in the east of the country, near the Red Sea coast Videos posted by Al Araby TV show several people running on a dusty road at the time of the drone attack, while other footage shows graduation ceremony attendees apparently looking skyward as the drone struck.

Assassination attempt

The assassination attempt comes nearly a week after the head of Sudan’s paramilitary forces said he planned to attend ceasefire talks in Switzerland next month, hosted by the United States and Saudi Arabia .

General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo , head of the Rapid Support Forces fighting the Sudanese army, had stressed at the time that these talks would constitute “a major step” towards peace and stability in Sudan and would allow the creation of a new state based on “justice, equality and federalism” .

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry responded on Tuesday to the US invitation to participate in the Geneva talks, saying that the military-controlled Sudanese government was ready to take part, but that any negotiations before the implementation of the Jeddah Declaration “would not be acceptable to the Sudanese people . ”

The Jeddah Declaration on Commitment to Protecting Civilians, adopted last year, aimed to end the conflict, but neither side has committed to its goals.

Humanitarian aid

Representatives of the Sudanese army and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have engaged in talks restarted by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, focusing on delivering humanitarian aid , securing ceasefires and paving the way for a permanent cessation of aggression, among other goals.

In its statement on Tuesday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused the RSF of being the only party attacking cities, villages and civilians. The military-controlled Sudanese government called for sanctions to be imposed on the “rebels to stop their ongoing aggression, end the siege of cities and open the roads . ”

“The participants in this initiative are the same as those who took part in the Jeddah talks, and the topics discussed are identical to those that were agreed upon ,” the statement read.

The ministry added that the military-led government should be consulted on the agenda for any negotiations and the parties that would participate, with the provisions of the Jeddah Declaration to serve as the basis for future talks.

Negotiations

“The Sudanese government has requested that a meeting be held with the United States government in order to pave the way for peace negotiations in the interest of the Sudanese people ,” the foreign ministry said.

Cameron Hudson, former chief of staff to the special envoy to Sudan, said the response from the Sudanese military government was “much more positive and open” than he had expected, as it opened the door to preliminary talks with the United States.

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