Sudan said it has suspended its involvement in mediation efforts with IGAD, a group of East African countries that has sought to broker talks between the army and the paramilitary force it has been fighting for months.
In a Tuesday statement seen by Radio Tamazuj, the foreign ministry said dealings with IGAD were suspended after the regional group added Sudan to the agenda of a summit scheduled for January 18 in Uganda, and invited Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, to attend.
The ministry, which has been recently critical of the regional bloc, said it would no longer cooperate with the IGAD on any Sudanese issue.
The announcement came just two days before IGAD was due to hold an extraordinary summit in Uganda to discuss Sudan’s conflict.
Khartoum had officially declined to participate in the IGAD summit, citing the regional group’s failure to implement the outcomes of the last summit in Djibouti.
The war in Sudan erupted on 15 April over a plan for a political transition away from military rule. It has caused a major humanitarian crisis, devastated the capital Khartoum, and sparked waves of ethnically driven killings in the western Darfur region.
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