Leaders from Sudan’s six neighboring countries met in Cairo on Thursday 13 July for the most high-profile peace talks since conflict erupted across the northeastern African country in mid-April.
The meeting, hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, was attended by the leaders of Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Libya.
The conflict in Sudan erupted in mid-April when tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) came to a head.
The conflict has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said last month. The actual death toll is likely much higher, doctors and activists believe. More than 2.4 million people had to flee their homes for safer areas inside the country, according to the International Organization for Migration. Around 738,000 others have crossed into neighboring countries, the agency said.
CAIRO – A summit of African leaders from war-torn Sudan’s neighbours Thursday urged an end to the fighting, as UN experts reported a mass grave had been discovered in the country’s Darfur region. https://t.co/WS1xtMyrj3 pic.twitter.com/e0aQ3q1U1h
— Bangkok Post (@BangkokPostNews) July 13, 2023
Thursday’s meeting in Cairo comes weeks after the several failed attempts between Saudi Arabia and the United States in the meetings held in the Saudi city of Jeddah. Washington and Riad initiatives did not result in any agreement between both sides of the conflict to stop fighting and commit to cease-fire.
In his opening address, el-Sissi said that his vision for the crisis’ end includes a lasting cease-fire agreement, the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors and a dialogue framework that would include all of Sudan’s wide-reaching political forces.
The Egyptian leader called on both parties to commit to cease-fire negotiations organized by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, an eight-member East African bloc, headed by Kenyan President William Ruto.
Sudan’s neighboring countries call for a de-escalation and an immediate commitment to a ceasefire.
The meeting of the “Sudan’s Neighboring Countries” concluded to discuss ways to end the ongoing military conflict in Sudan.
In the closing statement, the participants expressed their growing concern about the military operations and the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation. It also stressed the importance of preserving the Sudanese state and its capabilities and preventing its disintegration.
The statement informed of the formation of a ministerial mechanism on the crisis at the level of foreign ministers of neighboring countries.
On the hand, the Egyptian President met yesterday – on the sidelines of the summit – with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and they discussed the Sudan crisis and the issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
In a context related to the conflict in Sudan, the United Nations Human Rights Office on Thursday accused the Rapid Support Forces of killing at least 87 people, including women and children, who were found in a mass grave in West Darfur, Sudan. The United Nations office confirmed that it has reliable information about their killing at the hands of the RSF.
However, officials of the “Reporters Without Borders” organization said that the Rapid Support Forces are not a party to the conflict in West Darfur
The RSF also denied the accusations, and its spokesman, Muhammad al-Mukhtar, told Africanews:”The Rapid Support Forces were not a party to the armed conflict in this city, just as the fighting that took place in El Geneina was tribal, between the Arab tribes and the Masalit tribe.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights accused the Rapid Support Forces and the Arab tribes supporting them of burying dozens of bodies in two mass graves outside the city of El Geneina.
