African mediators claim progress in latest effort to end war in Sudan

 An African regional body involved in efforts to mediate over the war in Sudan at the weekend said it has secured a commitment from war­ring parties to implement a cease­fire and hold a political dialogue aimed at resolving the conflict.

At talks on Saturday in Djibouti, the current chair of the Intergov­ernmental Authority on Develop­ment (IGAD), Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, agreed to a one-on-one meeting with the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, an IGAD statement said.

In a phone call, Hemedti also agreed to the ceasefire proposal and a meeting with al-Burhan, the statement said.

Hemedti and al-Burhan “accept­ed the principle of meeting within 15 days in order to pave the way for a series of confidence-build­ing measures between the two parties that lead to the launch of a political process”, said Alexis Mohammed, adviser to Djibouti’s president.

The statement gave no further details, including when and where the two generals would meet.

Neither the Sudanese army nor the paramilitary RSF has commented on the development. Both sides have been locked in a conflict since mid-April that has devastated the capital, Khartoum, and triggered waves of ethnic killings in Darfur despite several diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting.

During the Djibouti meeting, al-Burhan accused the RSF of “barbaric attacks” but said the army had not closed the door on finding a peaceful solution.

Hemedti, whose whereabouts are unknown, addressed the IGAD meeting remotely, blaming the outbreak of the war on loy­alists of former President, Omar al-Bashir, who are powerful within the army. He called for army reforms and the formation of a civilian government.

The Djibouti meeting was or­ganised by IGAD – an eight-coun­try trade bloc comprising coun­tries in East Africa – and the African Union.

—Aljazeera.

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