Sudanese envoy in South Sudan, Dafallah al-Haj Ali arrived in Juba on Monday morning May 8, 2023, and met President Salva Kiir Mayardit.
Speaking to journalists after briefing President Salva Kiir on the situation in Sudan, Dafallah said the Sudanese people have full confidence in President Kiir to mediate the Sudanese conflict.
The envoy, who was dispatched by Sudan’s military leader General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, said Juba remains a prime place for the Sudanese peace talks due to its closeness to the hearts of the people of Sudan.
The Sudanese envoy’s visit to South Sudan came after a similar visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
For his part, South Sudan’s Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Deng Dau Malek said IGAD, African Union and the United Nations have all entrusted President Kiir with the responsibility of bringing the Sudanese warring parties to a negotiating table.
According to the acting minister, President Kiir calls on the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces to fully adhere to the agreed ceasefire to allow humanitarians to reach the people trapped by the conflict.
As the conflict in Sudan entered its fourth week, the warring sides began talks in Saudi Arabia’s coastal city of Jeddah on Saturday that aim to firm up a shaky ceasefire.
Fierce fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen hundreds of people killed and thousands of others wounded.
A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the paramilitary force regarding the RSF’s integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups.
Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”
Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, is scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.
