"We began separate contacts in Luanda with delegations from both warring parties to announce a ceasefire," Lourenço said on Friday night.
The conflict in Sudan, which began in April 2023, pits the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which control the capital, Khartoum.
The aim of the truce is "to initiate talks to negotiate a definitive and lasting peace and allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid to save lives," João Lourenço emphasized.
The statement came in a speech at a dinner hosted by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in honor of his Angolan counterpart, who was on an official visit to Portugal.
"We congratulate the courage and goodwill demonstrated by one of the parties in accepting the ceasefire and encourage the other party to follow the same path of giving peace another chance," João Lourenço said.
The President did not reveal, however, whether it was the army or the RSF paramilitaries that accepted the ceasefire.
"The situation in Sudan is unsustainable, judging by the high number of deaths, injuries, displaced populations and refugees, and the high level of destruction of property and infrastructure," lamented Lourenço.
More than 13 million people have been displaced, four million of them to neighboring countries, and Sudan's essential infrastructure — ports, banks, government agencies — has been destroyed or damaged.
Famine has been declared in some areas of Darfur (west) and the south of the country, where humanitarian organizations warn that millions of people are facing extreme hunger.
João Lourenço said that the African Union has made "a great effort to find solutions to the problems of insecurity and instability that plague various parts of the continent."
"We have managed to build a negotiating framework that includes the resolution of the conflict in the Central African Republic and opens up good prospects for an end to the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo," he emphasized.
On July 19, in Qatar, the rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a declaration of principles that included a commitment to a permanent ceasefire.
The agreement signed in Doha was hailed by the international community as a step forward toward a comprehensive peace agreement in eastern Congo.
In April, in Chad, leaders of two of the five groups of the Coalition of Patriots for Change, the most important armed rebel movement in the Central African Republic, reached an agreement with Central African authorities.
