Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed and Saudi diplomat visit Sudan in push to end war

Previous mediation efforts led by the US and Saudi Arabia have failed to halt Sudan's devastating civil war

Sudan's army chief Gen Abdul Fattah Al Burhan, right, and visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Port Sudan on July 9, 2024. AFP

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrived in Sudan on Tuesday in what analysts believe to be the latest bid by the international community to persuade army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan to return to negotiations to end the country’s civil war.

The Ethiopian leader’s visit came a day after Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed bin Abdulkarim El-Khereiji invited Gen Al Burhan to return to peace negotiations sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the US and held in Jeddah.

An official Sudanese statement said Gen Al Burhan reiterated to the Saudi official his position that the army’s adversary, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, must first implement a deal reached last year in Jeddah to vacate private homes and government offices its fighters have occupied since the war broke out nearly 15 months ago.

Gen Al Burhan also repeated to the Saudi envoy his wish to see a “broader base of facilitators” in the Jeddah talks and expressed his reservation over the participation in the negotiations of “any party that supports the Rapid Support Forces,” the statement read.

“It is clear that this may be Al Burhan’s last chance to negotiate an end to the war,” said Sudanese analyst Amr Shaaban. “Given the string of defeats suffered by the army, he should respond positively.”

The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 when months of tension between Gen Al Burhan and former ally and RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo over the mandate and role of their respective forces in a democratic Sudan boiled over into violence.

The conflict has displaced nearly 10 million Sudanese and killed tens of thousands. It has also created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions facing hunger and pockets of famine surfacing, particularly in the western regions of Darfur and Kordofan.

On Tuesday, an official Sudanese statement said Gen Al Burhan briefed his Ethiopian guest on what it said were crimes committed by the RSF against civilians and its destruction of the nation’s infrastructure.

“My visit is a message of solidarity with the people of Sudan during its predicament,” the statement quoted Mr Abiy as saying. “This war will eventually end and the relations between our two countries will remain firm and deeply rooted.”

The statement gave no other details, but the analysts said the Ethiopian leader was in Port Sudan, the Red Sea city now home to the Sudanese government and its army’s leadership, to try on behalf of the African Union to persuade Gen Al Burhan to return to the negotiating table.

The Addis Ababa-based African Union, which is in theory part of the Jeddah Forum, is hosting a meeting on Sudan later this month to explore the potential for a peaceful settlement.

US and Saudi mediators brokered a series of ceasefires in the early stages of the war but none of them lasted or were diligently observed by the warring sides. An invite by the mediators earlier this year for the resumption of talks was rejected by the army.

“The Jeddah Forum is now open to all relevant parties, including the African Union,” said Osman Al Mirghany, a prominent Sudanese analyst. “Abiy Ahmed came to Sudan to discuss with Al Burhan steps through the African Union for the army to resume negotiations.”

The stepped-up diplomacy to get the army and the RSF to re-engage in peace talks comes at a time when the paramilitary is making steady territorial gains, with new fronts in areas south of the capital in Al Jazira and Sinnar regions.

Already, the RSF has almost full control of Darfur and Kordofan in the West as well as the capital.

However, Gen Al Burhan continues to publicly vow to fight until victory, branding the RSF a mutinous and a terrorist force.

The latest bout of diplomacy also comes days after neighbouring Egypt hosted a meeting of Sudanese political forces that failed to make any progress towards a peaceful settlement but succeeded in bringing together for the first time in years representatives of rival political groups.

Neither the army nor the RSF sent representatives to the meeting on Saturday and some of the pro-army factions present refused to sign the meeting’s final communique.

“It would have been nothing less than work of magic if they were to reach common ground or bury their differences after a one-day meeting,” said Mr Al Mirghany.

“It was an excellent start, though,” he told The National.

US Special Envoy Tom Perriello said he hoped momentum from Saturday's talks would carry on to another meeting called by the African Union next week, another of several overlapping initiatives to end the war.

Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda.