Egypt – Regional and international powers are making remarkable political moves to stop the ongoing fighting in Sudan since April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces.
This movement – led by three countries: Egypt, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, in addition to international and regional entities – began with the meeting of the Sudanese political and civil forces in the capital, Cairo, last week, through the visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to the city of Port Sudan (eastern Sudan) and his meeting with the Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
Prior to that, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Al-Khuraiji visited Port Sudan, where he discussed resuming the “Jeddah negotiations” with Burhan.
Coinciding with this diplomatic movement, the Ethiopian capital witnessed, yesterday, Monday, the conclusion of meetings sponsored by the African Union, with the participation of 14 Sudanese entities and parties, most notably the “Freedom and Change – Democratic Bloc” (political parties and armed movements), where they called for “stopping the war, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, and forming a temporary, non-partisan caretaker government.”
Indirect talks are also being held in the Swiss city of Geneva between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, regarding the delivery of humanitarian aid, which are still ongoing, under the auspices of the United Nations.
All these moves aim to establish a ceasefire in Sudan and reach an agreement that will spare the country further collapse following UN and international warnings of sliding into a humanitarian disaster that might result in thousands of deaths due to famine and food shortages.
There have been increasing calls from the United Nations and international organizations to spare Sudan a humanitarian disaster that might push millions to famine and death, due to food shortages caused by the fighting.
Meetings are still ongoing in Geneva to discuss ways to resolve the Sudanese crisis, following two separate meetings held by Al-Burhan in Port Sudan with the Ethiopian Prime Minister and the Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister.
From Switzerland, the United Nations said, “The two warring parties in Sudan have arrived in Geneva to participate in UN-led talks aimed at mediating a possible ceasefire to facilitate the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid and protect civilians.”
The spokesman for the international organization, Stephane Dujarric, confirmed, in a press conference held in New York City, USA, on Friday evening, that the discussions “will continue over the weekend in different formats and in different places, and will be conducted through the Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, and not face-to-face between the two parties to the conflict.”
Prior to these talks, Al-Burhan met with the Ethiopian Prime Minister in Port Sudan and briefed him on the developments of the war that has been raging in his country for more than a year.
During the meeting, Abiy Ahmed stressed “the importance of peace as the basis for development” and the necessity of solving countries’ problems “internally without external interference.”
Last week, Al-Burhan discussed with the Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister, in Port Sudan, the resumption of the “Jeddah negotiations” to stop the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
Since May 6, 2023, Saudi Arabia and the United States have been sponsoring talks between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which resulted on the 11th of the same month in the first agreement in Jeddah between the two sides to commit to protecting civilians, and the announcement of more than one truce during which violations and exchange of accusations occurred between the two parties, which prompted the mediators to suspend the negotiations.
Prior to Al-Burhan’s meetings in Port Sudan, Cairo hosted a conference of Sudanese political forces entitled “Together to Stop the War in Sudan,” with the participation of representatives of those forces, the United Nations, the African Union, the League of Arab States, the European Union, and a number of influential countries interested in the Sudan file.
The final statement of this conference – which was held with the participation of the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Badr Abdel Aati – stressed the necessity of an “immediate cessation” of the war, without revealing measures to achieve this path.
In this regard, the Sudanese writer and political analyst Amir Babiker attributed the recent regional and international movement to the fact that “the Sudanese crisis has reached a stage where the security situation might unravel in a way that makes it difficult to control its repercussions in the region and the world, which is suffering from multiple crises.”
He said, “The neighboring countries are the ones who most sensed the danger they would face as a result of this situation,” pointing to the lack of prospects for reaching understandings between the parties to the conflict that have been active since the outbreak of the war.
He added, “It is clear that the current movement is working on three levels, the first of which is led by Saudi Arabia, and is concerned with reaching a ceasefire between the two parties.”
As for the second level, according to Babiker, it is a step linked to the first and is concerned with “facilitating the delivery of relief to those who deserve it in areas affected by war, displaced persons and refugees.”
He pointed out that the third level of the current diplomatic movement is related to the “political process as a complementary level to the post-ceasefire.”
In a related context, Babiker stressed that reaching understandings related to the political process for the post-war period is “an issue that is important to outline early on,” indicating that Egypt “tried to play a role” in establishing these understandings.
He added that Egypt “succeeded in gathering influential forces, and the outcomes of the Cairo meeting confirmed the importance of the three levels, starting with the Jeddah platform (referring to the Saudi movement to resolve the crisis in Sudan) concerned with the ceasefire.”
Regarding Abiy Ahmed’s visit to Burhan, Babiker considered it to carry important indicators, the first of which is that there are understandings between him and the two parties to the war that necessitated his visit to the temporary capital, Port Sudan.
The Sudanese analyst said, “Abiy Ahmed did not come to search for solutions to the crisis from scratch, nor as a mediator in isolation from the international and regional movement taking place. Rather, he came with what indicates in his bag the importance of confirming understandings that have already been reached.”
Babiker described the diplomatic movement regarding Sudan at the present time as “harmonious despite its multiple threads.”
For his part, Sudanese political analyst Youssef Hamad believed that “the current movement represents the beginning of the process of retreating from losing bets and wrong readings regarding Sudan.”
He explained, “In a way, we are facing a new beginning for a new nature towards Sudan, the most prominent title of which is stopping the war and entering into peace processes, and we cannot guess the nature of this peace and its limits.”
Hamad pointed out that any attempt to understand the Egyptian or Ethiopian moves towards the crisis in Sudan “must take into account the natural disparity between Cairo and Addis Ababa, due to the water conflict and the Renaissance Dam.”
He said that in general, every country, whether Egypt or Ethiopia, “seeks to ensure that it has some influence on the future situation in Sudan.”
Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti), have been waging a war that has left regarding 15,000 dead and regarding 10 million displaced and refugees, according to the United Nations.
Source: Anadolu Agency + Al Jazeera
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2024-07-17 04:33:47