IGAD Plans Summit on Sudan in December, Amid Fresh Violence

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has organized a summit of heads of state and government on December 9 in Djibouti to formally amend its mediation program on Sudan seeking peace, amid fresh violence.

The mediation programs, which had included the creation of a quartet of countries seeking peace will be a result of the strong lobbying by Sudanese junta leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Read: IGAD sticks to mediation roadmap amid Sudan rejection of president Ruto’s lead role

Burhan has recently completed a new round of shuttle diplomacy that saw him visit Nairobi and Addis Ababa, two capitals in the region he had initially avoided. On November 26, Burhan also met with Djibouti President Omar Ismael Guelleh, the Igad chair, and executive secretary Workneh Gebeyehu in Djibouti, and later Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki in Asmara. Dispatches said they discussed Sudan’s security and humanitarian situation.

The Summit will discuss the humanitarian situation in Sudan, where some 5,000,000 people have been displaced and more than 7,500 killed since the violence broke out in April.

Burhan said the meeting is crucial to reverse some of the earlier decisions IGAD had made in June, when it created a quartet of Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and South Sudan to lead the dialogue between warring parties, the Sudan Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Read: IGAD Calls for Inclusive Talks to End Sudan Conflict

Sudan had requested the end of the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (Unitams), having fallen out with its leaders over alleged bias. But the UN Security Council (UNSC) is yet to make a decision on ending, extending or remodelling the mission, whose leader Volker Perthes was expelled from Sudan before he resigned.

Unitams mandate expires on December 3, although the UNSC may still make a decision on it long after the date.