Sudan Offers to Mediate in Tigray Conflict

Sudan Sovereign Council Member Gen Kabbashi receives EU envoy for Horn of Africa Annette Weber on Sept 27, 2022

September 27, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan expressed readiness to contribute to ongoing efforts to end the armed conflict in northern Ethiopia between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)

The war in the border region of Tigray between the federal army and the TPLF resumed last August after a five-month of humanitarian truce amid growing international pressure to strike a political deal.

The warring parties had failed to agree on who is eligible to mediate the process. The government proposed the African Union while the TPLF said Kenya is well placed to broker the peace process.

But finally, the Tigray leader accepted the African mediation of the talks while Nairobi appointed former President Uhuru Kenyatta, as a special peace envoy to Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Tuesday, Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Member, Lt Gen Shams al-Din Kabbashi and the visiting European Union Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Annette Weber discussed the situation in Sudan and ways to end the Ethiopian conflict.

In a statement released after the meeting, the military-led council said that General Kabbashi told the visiting envoy that Sudan calls on the warring parties to join the negotiating table to reach a political solution for the conflict.

“In this respect, he stressed Sudan’s readiness of Sudan, as a chairman of IGAD and a neighbour, to contribute positively to the settlement of the conflict in the interest of regional stability,” further said the Sovereign Council.

The government in Sudan is in contact with both sides to prevent the exportation of the conflict to its territory. However, it is not clear if it has officially proposed its mediation to the two parties.

Also, the disagreement over the filling of the giant dam on the Blue Nile and the dispute of the Al-Fashaga border stripe disqualify Khartoum as a mediator.

Sudan hosts some 60,000 Ethiopian refugees who fled the war in Tigray after the eruption of armed clashes in November 2020.

(ST)