After numerous cease-fires have failed to hold, Kenyan President William Ruto promised to set up a “face to face” meeting with the warring generals in Sudan in order to put an end to the crisis engulfing the nation.
Since mid-April, when the army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who is in charge of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, started to fight, fighting has been raging in the nation of northeastern Africa.
There have been numerous truces agreed upon and breached, and on Saturday, mediators from the United States and Saudi Arabia issued a warning that they might end their efforts if a 24-hour cease-fire was not observed.
Along with the U.S. and Saudi attempts, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union, which suspended Sudan after a coup in 2021 led by Burhan and Daglo, have pushed for negotiations to be mediated by President Salva Kiir of South Sudan.
IGAD declared that it will increase the number of nations charged with settling the conflict at a summit held in Djibouti on Monday. Kenya will preside over a quartet that includes Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan.
“Kenya commits to meet the two Sudan generals face to face to find a lasting solution to the crisis,” Ruto said, according to a statement released by the Kenyan presidency that summed up his remarks to the media in Djibouti.
“In the next three weeks, we will begin the process of an inclusive national dialogue,” Ruto said, adding that a humanitarian corridor would be established in a fortnight to facilitate the delivery of aid.
After an effort at a truce failed at the end of May, the United States placed sanctions on both of the opposing generals.
According to the United Nations, a record 25 million people, or more than half the population, require assistance and protection.
According to the U.N., fighting has engulfed Khartoum and the western part of Darfur, uprooting about two million people, including 476,000 who have fled to neighbouring nations.
The most recent cease-fire, which concluded on Sunday, gave locals a rare break from the hostilities and allowed stranded civilians to go shopping for food and other necessities.
During the long-time strongman Omar al-Bashir’s tenure, whose government was subject to years of international sanctions before his downfall in 2019, Daglo and other military elites in Sudan accumulated significant riches.