AU, Partners to Discuss Roadmap for Resolution of Conflict in Sudan

May 30, 2023

ADDIS ABABA – The African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat has convened the third Meeting of the expanded mechanism on the Sudan crisis on Wednesday.

The meeting will bring together representatives from the Trilateral Mechanism – the AU, IGAD and UN – as well as the League of Arab States, the European Union, members of the UN Security Council, Sudan’s neighboring countries and Comoros as Chair of the AU.

Member countries of the Quad – the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – as well as Norway, Germany and Qatar are also expected to partake in the meeting.

“It aims to discuss the next steps regarding the situation in Sudan, including the implementation of the African Union Roadmap for the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan (the AU Roadmap), in close collaboration with the Sudanese stakeholders,” the AU said in a statement today.

The AU Roadmap was adopted by the AU PSC at the Heads of State and Government level on 27th May 2023.

Among other things, the AU, says it intends “to establish mechanisms to coordinate support to Sudan, secure an immediate, permanent, inclusive and unconditional cessation of hostilities.”

It also “promotes the resumption of an inclusive, fully representative political process” in Sudan.

The conflict in Sudan began on 15 April and was triggered by a power struggle between former allies – the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Hundreds of people have been killed in the conflict that forced more than 1.3 million people to flee and threatened to destabilize the region.

On Tuesday, the African Union said it “strongly condemned the ongoing brutal and unjustified conflict” between the SAF and the RSF.

“The AU has also stressed that there can be no military solution to the conflict and demanded the resumption of the political transition process culminating in the conduct of elections towards a democratic, civilian-led government,” the pan African bloc said.

The Union has also firmly rejected all forms of external interference in Sudan.

As part of his efforts to strengthen the search for a common approach to finding a sustainable solution to the multi-layered crisis in Sudan, the AU says Chairperson Mahamat will dispatch emissaries to the states neighboring Sudan in coming days.

The Expanded Mechanism on the Sudan Crisis was established at the Ministerial Special Session on Sudan on April 20 to coordinate and harmonize regional, continental and international efforts in support of a peaceful resolution of the conflict to end the suffering of the Sudanese people.

The second meeting of the Expanded Mechanism was held in Addis Ababa on 2nd May 2023