Sudan's army-aligned foreign ministry rejects East African peace bid

FILE PHOTO: A Sudanese national flag is attached to a machine gun of Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soldiers as they wait for the arrival of Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the military council and head of RSF, before a meeting in Aprag village 60, kilometers away from Khartoum, Sudan, June 22, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas//File Photo

CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudan's army-aligned foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected a regional summit's proposal to consider deploying peacekeeping forces to protect civilians, dashing tentative hopes the gathering might help efforts to end a near three-month-old war.

The violent power struggle between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 15 has killed more than 1,000 civilians and displaced 2.9 million, according to the United Nations.