KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has refused to meet with the general he has been at war with for the past eight weeks, according to a government official on Tuesday.
This comes after the East African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) proposed a face-to-face encounter between the two military leaders during a summit held in Djibouti on Monday.
The IGAD announced its plans to expand the number of countries involved in resolving the crisis, with Kenya taking the lead in a quartet that also includes Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan. The quartet leaders were expected to arrange a meeting between General al-Burhan and his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemeti, in one of the regional capitals.
Power Struggle in Sudan
However, a Sudanese government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that General al-Burhan is not willing to sit at the same table as General Hemeti, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The two generals have been engaged in a power struggle since April 15, following a coup in 2021 that disrupted Sudan’s transition to democracy. They have traded accusations, and multiple truces have been disregarded by both sides.
In response to the ongoing conflict, the United States recently imposed sanctions on both warring factions. Despite international efforts to mediate the situation, fighting continues, with witnesses reporting artillery strikes in Khartoum on Tuesday. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) estimates that over 1,800 people have been killed since the battles began, and nearly two million people have been displaced, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
The IGAD quartet’s proposal to facilitate a meeting between the rival generals aimed to bring about a resolution to the conflict. However, Sudan’s foreign ministry expressed reservations about certain points in the IGAD statement and demanded that the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, continue to lead the committee on Sudan, which was not included in the quartet.
