The President of the Sudan Sovereign Council and commander of the Sudan Armed Forces, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who is fighting against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) visited Juba on Monday to discuss the crisis with President Salva Kiir.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival at Juba International Airport, the Sudanese acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali al-Sadiq, said his government believes South Sudan is a better mediator to the Sudanese conflict.
“We in Sudan feel that South Sudan is the best country to meditate the conflict in Sudan, because we have been one country for so long and we know each other, we know the problems, and we know our needs,” Ali said.
In mid-April, the conflict between Burhan and RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti) broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and later spread across Sudan over failed planned integration of the two forces.
Despite several appeals to silence guns and and get to a negotiation table to end the conflict, the fighting continues to escalate in the Sudan.
IGAD had chosen President William Ruto of Kenya to lead the TROIKA countries on Sudan after the initial mediation team led by President Salva Kiir could not manage to bring the warring parties together as quickly as expected, but the Sudanese government rejected Ruto’s leadership and preferred Kiir.
South Sudan’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro echoed the preference, saying South Sudan remains the best country to find a solution to the crisis in Sudan.
“It is known that President Kiir is the only person who has intimacy and knowledge about Sudan and can find a solution to the Sudanese crisis,” said Lomuro.
Burhan’s visit to Juba is recorded as the second trip outside Sudan after he visited Egypt on Tuesday last week, when he held talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in the Egyptian coastal city of el-Alamein since the conflict erupted in Khartoum on 15 April.
