US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Molly Phee, will travel to Addis Ababa tomorrow, Monday, to engage with African leaders during the meeting of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to discuss ways to resolve the Sudanese crisis.
The US State Department stated in a statement today, Sunday, that Phee will meet with senior government representatives in the region, as well as representatives from IGAD and the African Union Commission, along with Sudanese civilians committed to ending the conflict and restoring democratic governance in Sudan.
It called on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately cease fighting, return to their barracks, abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and allow unimpeded humanitarian access to meet the urgent needs of civilians.
The statement stated that the region’s countries call for preventing any external intervention and military support, as this would escalate the conflict and prolong its duration. At the IGAD summit held in Djibouti on June 12, a quadripartite committee was formed consisting of Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia to discuss solutions to the Sudanese crisis.
The President and the governments of the quadripartite committee will hold their first meeting tomorrow in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to discuss the developments in the Sudanese crisis. However, the Sudanese government rejected this initiative and refused Kenya’s leadership.
On the other hand, Arab, African, and international parties have intervened to halt the clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, but these mediations have not succeeded in achieving a permanent ceasefire.
Although joint efforts sponsored by Riyadh and Washington have led several times to temporary ceasefires, they have not been adhered to. Since April 15, intense and widespread clashes have been ongoing between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces in various parts of Sudan, mostly concentrated in the capital, Khartoum, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries among civilians.
Differences between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, and the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, as well as Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, have become apparent publicly after signing the “Constitutional Declaration” establishing the transitional period between the military and civilian components in December last year, which acknowledged the army’s withdrawal from politics and the transfer of power to civilians.
