The talks were supposed to take place, on Monday, between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, under the auspices of the “IGAD”, which consists of 8 countries in and around the Horn of Africa, in Addis Ababa.
But a delegation from the Sudanese army did not attend the first day of the meetings, after refusing to have Kenyan President William Ruto chair the talks’ steering committee.
Commenting on these developments, Ezzat, advisor to the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hamedti), criticized, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, the decision of the armed forces, saying: “I see no reason to prevent the army, which started the war causing all this destruction.” , from attendance.
He added, “The army excused not attending a meeting at this level, in which the European Union, Egypt and Britain were present, to object to whoever heads the committee leading the talks under the pretext that he is not neutral. This is an issue for which people die.”
And he continued: “If there was originally an army that had a leadership keen on the Sudanese people, it would not fire, tanks, or send warplanes into the heart of Khartoum. This caused the killing of civilians. This is what caused this war that (the army) says is absurd. If it considers it absurd It is absurd that he should come and sit down and end this war,” according to the advisor to the commander of the Rapid Support Forces.
He added, “You cannot evade. Do you want the Quartet Chairman to serve your cause or to serve the cause of the Sudanese people? This flimsy reason is not objective. We are at war and the country is in crisis, and whoever negotiates must live up to the responsibility.”
Consolidation of initiatives “necessity”
Ezzat stressed the need to “unify the initiatives (seeking to end the fighting),” saying: “There is the IGAD initiative, the African Union initiative, and the Saudi and American initiatives. Unifying the initiatives is a first step, and we support this direction.”
He considered that “the multiplicity of initiatives leads to a kind of competition between the mediators, whose role lies in supporting the Sudanese people and achieving peace and a cease-fire.”
The advisor to the commander of the Rapid Support Forces pointed out that “international and regional interest in what is happening in Sudan is natural, because it affects the entire region,” adding: “It is natural that there are several initiatives. Now the situation in Sudan needs the concert of all of these.”
And he continued: “All friends of Sudan who want help must unite efforts, and this is what our paper focused on in the meeting, as it included our vision of how to unify all these initiatives into one initiative, which has a vision and a complete vision for a comprehensive solution in Sudan.”
Ezzat stressed that “the crisis is no longer a war in Khartoum or Darfur, but has become a national crisis that requires a solution from the roots, and addressing all the causes of the war in Sudan, and this is what the mediators must unite in.”
The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is under the control of the army, said that “its delegation did not attend because IGAD ignored its request to replace Kenyan President William Ruto as chair of the committee leading the talks.”“.
And the ministry added, in a statement published by the official Sudanese News Agency (SUNA), that among the reasons for the delegation’s non-participation was “President Ruto’s lack of impartiality in the current crisis.”“.
Last month, Khartoum accused Nairobi of harboring the Rapid Support Forces.
Neither Ruto’s office nor the Kenyan Foreign Ministry immediately responded when Reuters requested comment, but the Kenyan government said last month that the president was “a neutral arbiter appointed by the IGAD summit”.
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