Sudan Freezes Engagement with IGAD Amidst Summit Controversy

The Sudanese government announced on Tuesday that it has suspended its involvement with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in relation to resolving the ongoing crisis in the country. This decision was contained in an official statement released by Sudan’s Foreign Ministry.

The Sudan’s Acting Foreign Minister, Ali Al-Sadiq, has, therefore informed the regional bloc of Sudan’s decision.

This decision, according to the statement, is in response to what Khartoum perceives as “a violation” by IGAD, accusing IGAD of including the situation in Sudan on the agenda of its upcoming summit without prior consultation with the Sudanese government.

It would be recalled that IGAD had invited the member states of the East African bloc to an extraordinary summit scheduled for Thursday this week in Uganda to address the Ethiopia-Somalia dispute and the political and security challenges in Sudan.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry further criticized IGAD’s invitation to the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, to attend the summit as “a dangerous precedent in the history of IGAD and regional and international organizations, adding that it is a deviation from established norms within the intergovernmental body.