American website, Al Monitor, on Wednesday May 17, 2023, revealed that the US government “ignored” warnings days ago about Sudan sliding into violence that has erupted between the East African nation’s army and the Rapid Support Forces.
According to the report, members of the U.S. Senate have called for a new approach after State Department officials, led by African Affairs Director Molly Fee, repeatedly downplayed the importance of warnings that the country’s rival generals, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese army, and Lieutenant General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti), the commander of the Rapid Support, were heading toward violent confrontation.
According to the report, the two senior deputies on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on President Joe Biden’s administration to appoint a new envoy to Sudan after the collapse of U.S.-mediated talks between the generals and the outbreak of violence mid-last month, threatening to plunge the country into civil war.
The site quoted the committee chairman, Senator Bob Menendez, as saying he would press the administration at various levels to appoint an envoy to oversee Washington’s diplomatic engagement with Sudan.
“We urgently need a high-level representative to deal with interlocutors in Africa, the Gulf, and Europe, and a representative directly responsible to the President or the Secretary of State,” he added during a hearing with the second official in the State Department, Victoria Nuland.
The report noted that the outbreak of violence has sparked a wave of criticism of the Biden administration’s decision to continue working with the generals to transition Sudan to democratic elections even after they ousted the civilian-led transitional government in 2021.
Informed sources on U.S. intelligence assessments regarding Sudan said, “There seem to be few if any exits for the warring generals, raising fears that the country may be heading toward a long-term conflict fueled by readily available flows of weapons and foreign funding.”
An American official told the news site, “Frankly, we’ve seen violations from both sides in all cease-fire agreements so far, and we don’t expect that to change.”
Former officials stated that both the previous administration under President Donald Trump and Biden’s administration have missed multiple opportunities to hold senior Sudanese generals accountable due to concerns that sanctions would push them away from the negotiation table.
