Sudan’s Military Leader Accuses Rival of Obstruction amidst Diplomatic Meeting Postponement

General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the military leader of Sudan, has accused his rival, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, of obstructing peace negotiations. The accusations surfaced after a scheduled diplomatic meeting in Djibouti was unexpectedly postponed.

Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, as quoted by Kenyan media outlet East African, expressed regret over the Rapid Support Forces’ failure to communicate their absence from the meeting.
The meeting, intended to take place on Thursday in Djibouti, was postponed to January 2024 by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) due to what Djibouti’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described as technical reasons.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sudan stated that General Al-Burhan had formally agreed to attend the meeting and was prepared to travel to Djibouti on Wednesday evening. However, he was taken aback by the sudden announcement of the meeting’s postponement to the following year. The ministry accused General Hemedti of being a stumbling block to the peace process, citing the lack of response from the Rapid Support Forces.
Djibouti’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, confirmed the rescheduling of the meeting to early 2024 for technical reasons and assured that precise dates for the January meeting would be communicated in due time.
The postponement was in line with the directive from Djibouti’s President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, who is the current chair of IGAD, as per the final communique of the Extraordinary IGAD Summit on December 9, 2023.
The IGAD Quartet group of countries had convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 10, 2023, to discuss the implementation of the IGAD roadmap for peace in Sudan.
Despite initial disagreements on the IGAD communique, the group expressed its commitment to supporting measures addressing the root causes of the Sudanese crisis.
The conflict in Sudan, which erupted on April 15, 2023, has had severe humanitarian consequences, displacing more than 6.7 million people, with 9,000 reported deaths and an additional 5.6 million forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Despite numerous attempts by regional and international actors to broker peace, the war in Sudan continues unabated.