US envoy meets army chief Al Burhan on first visit to Sudan

Experts criticise Tom Perriello's belated visit ahead of his departure from his post

US envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello, centre, is welcomed by local officials upon his arrival in Port Sudan on November 18, 2024. AFP

Tom Perriello, US envoy to Sudan, held talks with the country's army chief to discuss aid and efforts to end the war, marking his first trip to the war-torn country since he was appointed to the role in February.

Mr Perriello met commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and the Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Youssef in what the army chief's Sovereignty Council described as “long, comprehensive and frank” talks.

Sudan has been mired in conflict since the war erupted in April last year between the armed forces and a coalition of rebel militias known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mr Al Burhan's former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The US diplomat's term will end once Joe Biden leaves office in January.

Several international efforts, including US-mediated talks in Geneva, to ease tensions and maintain steady humanitarian access to millions of Sudanese suffering from starvation, disease and displacement have so far been unsuccessful and the war has continued to escalate.

The envoy's visit came as Russia on Monday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities in the country.

Mr Perriello was supposed to arrive in Port Sudan on Sunday but his visit was delayed by a day due to “logistical problems”, according to a report from Sudan’s national news agency.

The trip “underscores the ongoing US commitment” to working towards resolving the conflict, the US State Department said following the visit.

It also said Mr Perriello “engaged in frank dialogue with Sudanese officials”, which focused on “the need to cease fighting, enable unhindered humanitarian access, including through localised pauses in the fighting to allow for the delivery of emergency relief supplies, and commit to a civilian government”.

The envoy welcomed “recent progress to expand humanitarian access” in a post on X. “As the largest aid donor to Sudan, we will work around the clock to ensure that food, water and medicine can reach people in all 18 states plus refugees,” Mr Perriello said.

Ceremonial visit

His imminent departure from his post as the main US mediator in the civil war has raised eyebrows among some observers who view his visit as broadly ceremonial.

Sudanese political analyst Hatim Dirdiri described US mediation efforts as "largely ineffectual".

Throughout his term, Mr Perriello has maintained a distance from Sudan’s military-dominated transitional government, headed by Mr Al Burhan, which has repeatedly accused him of being biased in favour of the RSF's position in the war.

“I don’t think that this visit will accomplish anything significant. The situation in Sudan is a lot more complicated than to be solved with one round of diplomatic meetings. The intensity of the war is increasing in several Sudanese provinces,” said Sudanese writer and political analyst Fayez Al Sheikh Al Salik.

Mr Perriello insisted on meeting Mr Al Burhan at Port Sudan airport when he was scheduled to visit in July alongside Samantha Power, the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and former US Ambassador to the UN.

He cited security concerns for his insistence on not leaving the airport’s premises.

Gen Al Burhan then refused to meet at the airport and in July clarified that this would have undermined the transitional government, insisting on meeting the US delegation on government premises inside the city.

In August, Mr Perriello cited a “lack of will” on both sides of the civil war as the reason for the dire humanitarian crisis.

In an October 30 post on X, he highlighted the urgent need for humanitarian deliveries and claimed that the government “only allowed 10% of humanitarian supplies in Port Sudan to reach the people in desperate need of food and medicine. 90% of the emergency relief has been blocked or delayed by the authorities in Port Sudan”.

The post was met with an angry response from multiple Sudanese activists who said his comments were inaccurate.

The US envoy was also accused of focusing too much on humanitarian deliveries in his mediation efforts to the detriment of achieving political solutions, Mr Dirdiri explained.

Sudan’s sovereign council on Wednesday said that it would extend the use of the Adre border crossing with Chad, seen as essential by aid agencies for the delivery of food and other supplies to areas at risk of famine in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

The crossing had been closed until August when both sides of the civil war agreed to reopen it for aid deliveries to Darfur for three months.

While it remains uncertain what the next administration under Donald Trump will bring, there are hopes that a change in the White House could provide a renewed vision to the country.

“Biden’s administration did a terrible job mitigating the war because it failed to bring the RSF under control even after multiple international platforms such as in Jeddah and Geneva promised to end their abuses to civilians,” Mr Dirdiri said.

“This in turn made the Sudanese army more intransigent in its stance and Al Burhan dug his heels in. After seeing the limited effectiveness of repeated international mediation, he started to believe that winning the war is the only way to end the conflict.”

Repeated sanctions have been levied against several top RSF commanders for human rights abuses. Thus far sanctions have been imposed by several US government agencies, by the European Commission and the UN. Though the Sudanese armed forces have also been accused of human rights abuses, sanctions have only been levied against the RSF.

The UK, which is currently serving as penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council, has put forth a resolution aiming to end hostilities between both sides and put mechanisms in place for protecting civilians. The resolution has not yet been voted on.