IGAD has key role to play in ending conflict in Sudan

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has a key role in ending the conflict in Sudan, Sudan’s special envoy said in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Monday.

Dafallah Al-Haj Ali, special envoy of the head of the Sudan Sovereign Council, said the ongoing mediation talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are mainly focused on opening humanitarian corridors, adding that IGAD is likely to play a key role in mediating final political settlement when the time comes.

“Our response to the initiative of Saudi Arabia and the United States does not exclude the role of IGAD and the role with which President Salva Kiir has been entrusted,” Ali told a press conference in Juba. “We will never sideline IGAD, especially after assigning President Salva Kiir to be at the helm of this mission.”

IGAD, which includes Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda, on April 17 appointed Kiir to lead ceasefire negotiations in Sudan alongside Kenyan President William Ruto and Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh.

Sudan’s health ministry stopped updating the number of casualties on May 2, when the death toll stood at 550 with 4,926 people injured.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a total of 123,110 refugees have fled to South Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic since the conflict erupted in Sudan in mid-April. Enditem