The government of Sudan has protested the visit of the representative of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leadership, Yousif Ezat, to South Sudan.
On Wednesday, Ezat, political advisor of the RSF visited Juba and met President Salva Kiir, who had earlier requested his boss Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti) to sent his representative to Juba for ceasefire talks just as Abdel Fatah Al Burhan did.
The RSF envoy and the South Sudan acting minister of foreign Affairs Deng Dau Deng, jointly briefed the media after the meeting with president Salva Kiir on their position as RSF.
On Thursday, however, the Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to the government of South Sudan, protesting the visit of the envoy to Juba.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged…an official protest memorandum to the Government of the Republic of South Sudan,” the statement partly reads.
“This action was taken in response to the permission granted to the advisor of the leader of the Rapid Support militias to visit Juba and to hold a press conference in the presence of senior officials from the Government of the Republic of South Sudan.”
“The Memorandum serves as an expression of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ strong denunciation of this action by the Government of the Republic of South Sudan.”
The fighting that erupted on April 15 in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country’s military leadership. The clashes are between the regular army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
According to latest estimates, more than 840,000 people have been displaced within Sudan and over 220,000 have fled to neighbouring countries.
The U.N. World Food Program said it was ramping up its operations across at least six states in Sudan to assist 4.9 million vulnerable people, as well as assisting those fleeing to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
