IGAD members meet over Sudan crisis
Sudan's Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (L) in Khartoum on December 5, 2022, and Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), in Khartoum on June 8, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Gen al-Burhan’s group protested the invitation of Gen Dagalo’s team to attend the Igad meeting.
Some of members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have arrived in Uganda to discuss tension between Ethiopia and Somalia and the fighting in Sudan despite two key members declining to attend the meeting.
Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh and South Sudan President Salva Kiir arrived in Uganda on Wednesday while Kenya President William Ruto is expected to arrive today.
The meeting will take place at State House Entebbe, with the host being President Yoweri Museveni.
It isn’t clear whether Eritrea President Isaias Afwerki will attend or not.
The eight-member organisation comprises of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
The Igad had earlier initiated negotiations between two warring Sudanese parties; one led by the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while the other headed by the Rapid Support Forces Commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The two groups have been fighting for the control of power in Sudan for nearly a year.
Gen al-Burhan’s group protested the invitation of Gen Dagalo’s team to attend the Igad meeting.
Gen Dagalo has been visiting several countries in the region including Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, amid protests from Gen al-Burhan’s leadership.
The Igad has been trying to establish communication between the two warring parties to be able to arrest prison escapees and fugitives, improve official media discourse, and reduce inflammatory rhetoric.
Their efforts haven’t yet yielded positive results.
Another contentious issue to be discussed is the port deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland.
Somalia, a member of Igad, said it is a violation of their territorial integrity since Somaliland is part of its territory.
Ethiopia, a landlocked country, has been looking for countries to partner with to be able to have access to the sea.
The Ethiopian government said it wouldn’t attend because they have commitments elsewhere while the Sudan leadership declined to attend the meeting, according to local media in the two countries.
