SUDAN’S military has suspended its participation in talks with a paramilitary force it has been battling for weeks for control of the north-eastern African country, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

The development was a blow to the United States and Saudi Arabia, which have mediated between the two sides whose conflict has plunged Sudan into chaos.

Brigadier Nabil Abdalla, a spokesman for the Sudanese armed forces, said the move is a protest to the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) “repeated violations” of the humanitarian ceasefire, including their continued occupation of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Khartoum.

Brig Abdalla said that the military wants to ensure that the truce’s terms “be fully implemented” before discussing further steps. 

So far, there have been seven declared ceasefires, all of which have been violated to some extent.

Responding to the military’s move, the RSF said that it “unconditionally backs the Saudi-US initiative.”

Two other senior military officials, who both wished to remain anonymous, said the army sent a letter to the Saudi and US mediators detailing what they called the RSF violations. 

They said that the military delegation was still in the venue of the talks in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.

One of the officials said the decision was prompted by the mediators’ efforts to move to the next stage of negotiations without “fully implementing the terms” of the humanitarian ceasefire. 

That stage includes a long-term cease-fire and engaging in negotiations to settle the disputes between the two sides, he said.

Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted in mid-April between the military, led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

The fighting has killed at least 866 civilians and wounded thousands more, according to the Sudan Doctors Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties. 

The conflict has forced nearly 1.4 million people to be displaced from their homes.