Politics

Political factions in Sudan gather in Cairo with little chance of reconciliation

Published

5 months ago

July 7, 2024

Rival political groups in Sudan joined the first formal peace talks in Cairo on Saturday, nearly 15 months after hostilities started, but they acknowledged there was little chance of a speedy conclusion to the conflict.

The army-aligned Democratic Bloc declined to meet in combined sessions with the Taqaddum faction during the conference, claiming that the latter was sympathetic to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF did not come, nor did the army.

Since it broke out in April 2023, the Sudanese conflict has resulted in the forced displacement of nearly 10 million people, hunger warnings, and waves of ethnically motivated violence that have been primarily blamed on the RSF.

This week, the force that moved across the state of Sennar resulted in more displacement. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army leader, responded by declaring that talks with the RSF or its backers would not take place.

“The stark deterioration in the humanitarian situation and the catastrophic consequences of this crisis, call on all of us to work immediately and sustainably to stop military operations,” said newly-appointed Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty.

The end of last year saw the breakdown of US-Saudi Arabia-sponsored talks between the army and RSF in Jeddah.

A coalition of armed organizations, civil society, and pro-democracy parties called Taqaddum has demanded that the war end. Multiple armed group leaders are fighting for the army-aligned Democratic Bloc.

At the beginning of the conference, the principal attendees were seated at opposite ends of the auditorium, despite Egypt’s ability to use its power to bring the gathering together.

The sole agreement reached by the two political groups was to establish a tiny subcommittee to draft a final communique demanding an end to the war, which three leaders of the Democratic Bloc who were fighting alongside the army refused to sign.

“We told them [the Egyptians] not to have high ambitions for this meeting,” Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim told Reuters. He along with Darfur governor Minni Minawi and Sovereign Council deputy Malik Agar did not sign the communique.

“Given the situation on the ground, if we sit and eat and drink and laugh with the people who are allied and partners in the crimes that are happening we would be sending the wrong message to our citizens and our soldiers,” he said.

He continued by saying that unless the RSF leaves civilian areas by a deal reached in Jeddah last year and the United Arab Emirates stops providing material support to the RSF, an end to the conflict is not likely. Despite the UAE’s denials, U.N. experts have stated that allegations of such backing are plausible.

Abdalla Hamdok, the head of Taqaddum and a former prime minister, denied any connection between the alliance and the RSF, stating he was waiting for the army’s approval before the meeting.

“A crisis this complicated and deep is not expected to end in one meeting… The lesson is for us to be patient and to build on anything positive that comes out of it,” he told Reuters, echoing sentiments from diplomats at the meeting.

Tom Perriello, the Special Envoy of the United States, expressed optimism that the momentum from the meetings on Saturday will continue into next week’s meeting, which is one of several related efforts that the African Union has called.

Related Topics:Featured RSF Sudan Sudan Conflict

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Politics

Ugandan opposition politician abducted, wife says

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to his wife on Wednesday, a well-known opposition leader from Uganda, Kizza Besigye was abducted during a book launch in Kenya over the weekend, taken to Uganda, and detained at a military prison in Kampala.

Despite his rejection of the results, Besigye has run against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni four times and lost each time, claiming voting intimidation and fraud. He has been arrested several times in the past.

“I request the (government) of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately,” said his wife Winnie Byanyima.

It was not immediately possible to get in touch with a Ugandan military spokesperson for comment.

“As police we don’t have him, so we can’t make any comment,” Ugandan police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters.
A spokesperson for Kenya’s national police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, one of Uganda’s major opposition parties, had 36 members arrested by Kenyan police in July. They were then deported to Uganda and accused of terrorism-related charges.

On the social networking site X, Byanyima stated that Besigye, who served as Museveni’s doctor during the guerrilla war but later turned into a vocal opponent, was abducted on Saturday as senior Kenyan opposition leader Martha Karua was launching a book.

“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” said Byanyima, who is the executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. “We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”

Museveni’s administration has been charged with repeatedly violating the human rights of opposition leaders and followers, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and unlawful detentions.

Politics

Sudan army chief Burhan meets US envoy

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The United States special envoy to Sudan has made his first trip to the African nation, hoping to bring an end to a horrific war and boost relief to millions of people in need.

After being appointed Washington’s ambassador to Sudan in February, Tom Perriello visited Port Sudan, the army-led government’s de facto capital on the Red Sea coast.

For the first time since the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in April 2023 due to the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a top U.S. official visited the nation.

“We feel an enormous amount of urgency to end this crisis and to ensure that we can … help to get food and medicine and life-saving support to the 20 million people plus that are in need,” a State Department official said before the trip.

Over 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require help, according to the U.N., as hunger has spread to one area and over 11 million people have abandoned their homes.

Sudan’s sovereign council stated in a statement that Perriello spoke with tribal, government, and humanitarian figures in addition to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s army head.

During what the council described as a “lengthy, comprehensive, and frank” discussion, the two men talked about how to provide humanitarian help and how to end the war through a political process.

“The U.S. envoy presented several suggestions which the head of the sovereign council agreed to,” the statement said.

Although the army declined to join U.S.-mediated peace negotiations in Geneva earlier this year, the meetings did obtain commitments from the warring parties to increase access to aid.

A power battle between the army and the RSF preceded a planned shift to civilian government, which is why the conflict broke out more than a year ago.

Perriello discussed “the need to cease fighting, enable unhindered humanitarian access, including through localized pauses in the fighting to allow for the delivery of emergency relief supplies, and commit to a civilian government,” a State Department statement said.

“Right now, I think there’s a key opportunity to build on the expansion of humanitarian aid,” the State Department official stated, emphasising the need for relief corridors to the most battle-ravaged areas, such as al-Fashir, Sennar, and parts of the capital Khartoum, even though the U.S. would continue to pursue a more comprehensive ceasefire and negotiations.

Last Monday, Sudan’s sovereign council announced that it would prolong the temporary opening of the Adre border crossing with Chad. According to relief organisations, this crossing is essential for delivering food and other supplies to famine-prone portions of the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

An RSF official stated at a press conference in Nairobi that while they were still amenable to peace, they had doubts about the army’s readiness.

“They do not listen to any language but that of the rifle, and so we will continue to talk to them in the language they understand,” said Brigadier General Omar Hamdan.