Sudan’s govt suspends ties with IGAD, pulls out of summit with paramilitary chief

Sudan’s army-aligned government has announced it won’t attend an extraordinary summit scheduled for 18 January and organized by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), saying its had suspended with the East African, accusing it of “violating” the country’s sovereignty by inviting a rival paramilitary chief to the high-level meeting.
This announcement comes as Sudan entered Monday (15 January) in the 9th month of the war with no politically negotiated solution at hand. IGAD is a group of East African nations has sought to broker talks between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, rival factions of the military government of Sudan, who have been fighting each other since 15 April 2023. The conflict has killed over 12,000 people and caused a major humanitarian crisis, displaced millions leaving them with no prospects and sparked ethically driven killings in Darfur.
Nine months after war broke out, the army has been losing territory while the paramilitary leader, also known as Hemedti, has recently emerged from months undercover to visit several African countries and meet with Sudanese pro-democracy political figures. Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has cited the need for a face-to-face meeting between the warring generals prior to broader discussions with the regional bloc that had — in parallel with the United States and Saudi Arabia — attempted to mediate between the two warring generals, but to no avail. On Saturday (13 January), the ministry had already accused the bloc of lending Daglo’s “militia” legitimacy by inviting it to a meeting that will be attended by member heads of state and government.