Start Countdown to Sudanese Generals Meeting
Abdalla Rizk Abusimaza
The proposed meeting of generals Abdelfattah al-Burhan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to be hosted by the Jeddah Platform, to agree on a ceasefire and end hostilities, is approaching in response to the Sudan emergency summit on the Sudan.
During his meeting with Kenyas President, William Ruto, in Nairobi, and with the Executive Secretary of IGAD, Durghani Kabihu, in Djibouti earlier, General Al-Burhan had initiated the proposal to launch a new endeavour to stop the war, along with that undertaken by the Jeddah Platform. At its meeting in Djibouti on 9 December, the summit was able to extract a commitment from both sides of the April 15 war to meet immediately and agree on a cessation of hostilities, IGADs Executive Secretary said in an X-platform tweet following the summits conclusion. The Summits outputs were widely welcomed. It has once again mobilized the hearts of millions of Sudanese, who have been shattered by war for more than eight months.
IGAD seems to have had no lasting interest in the statement made by the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs following the regional summit, which saw a qualitative international presence, in which it denied Proofs unconditional commitment to meeting Hemeti. It had issued some reservations to the Summits final communiqué, concluding that it had been rejected, while IGAD had continued to prepare for the meeting, according to news sources.
The forthcoming meeting, which is generally scheduled to take place two weeks after the summit, coincides with the commencement of Christmas and New Years celebrations, which may prevent observers or facilitators from the Western world, especially if not postponed.
Since the recent round of negotiation between the two belligerents, in persuading them to agree on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, was followed by a significant escalation of fighting in Darfur and some Kordofan. The break-up of the Djibouti summit without practical progress towards ending the hostilities followed a dramatic deterioration in the security situation, mostly in the remaining states of the Sudan, which are no longer safe after the transition of war to Al Jazeera State, which hosted hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Khartoum and other war-affected areas. Therefore, the failure of the two generals to come together, to establish a ceasefire agreement and to end the hostilities would lead to a further deterioration and aggravation of the situation, more than ever before, and to an increase in civilians suffering.
To date, Hemeti has responded to the decisions of the Djibouti summit and has personally confirmed his willingness to meet with Burhan, contrary to what he wished for his brother Abdul Rahim Dagalos deposition at the meeting, while from Camp Burhan no gesture of Chi has substantially modified his position, contrary to that of the outsider, to the delinquency of peace and the abandonment of the military settlement. It is difficult to predict whether the meeting will be possible and whether it will succeed in achieving its objective.
