African Union claims leading role in Sudan’s conflict resolution

January 29, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) underscored that the African Union must continue playing a role in the resolution of the political crisis in Sudan and called to prepare a plan to mediate the conflict.

“The AU should continue to accompany Sudan during its transition, including through the efforts of the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Sudan’s neighbouring countries and IGAD,” reads a Communiqué le Council issued a statement after a meeting held this week.

Through different meetings and resolutions during the past twenty years, the African Union and the United Nations agreed to establish a strong partnership to end conflicts in Africa and to support peace operations led by the African Union.

This partnership tasks the African Union and sub-regional bodies with the resolution of conflicts in the continent. Based on the principle of complementarity, the United Nations would provide the needed material and technical support to achieve this mission.

In this context, the Peace and Security Council requested the Chairperson of the AU Commission to keep working with the military-led Sovereign Council other stakeholders and to undertake a follow-on mission to Sudan to enhance efforts aiming to restore peace and stability there.

The 15 member body “Tasks the AU Commission, in consultations with all relevant stakeholders, to establish a mechanism aimed at supporting Sudan and coordinate the international community efforts, and ensure the full involvement of the AU in supporting Sudan,” further reads the communiqué.

With regard to the UN-facilitated consultations, the Council says it takes note of the UNITAMS initiative stressing “the need for the African Union to coordinate the international community efforts in Sudan in order to harmonize efforts aimed at resolving the crisis in Sudan”.

The UNITAMS has launched consultations aiming to facilitate an intra-Sudanese dialogue to end the Sudanese crisis triggered by a military coup last October.

Since Sudanese hold anti-coup protests rejecting the interruption of the transition. 78 civilians were killed and hundreds were wounded. Also, a dozen of rape cases were reported by the security forces.

The PSC Communiqué was issued after a recent visit made by Bankole Adeoye, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security to Khartoum earlier this month to assess the situation and explore the positions of the Sudanese stakeholders.

The African Union mediated the Constitutional Declaration signed by the Forces for Freedom and the military component on August 17, 2019, bringing the army to dissolve the Transitional Military Council and to negotiate the transitional authority with forces of the December Revolution.

The Council said it would undertake a field mission to Sudan to engage with all relevant stakeholders with the aim to contribute towards resolving the current crisis in the country.

Dialogue should be based on previous deals

Regarding the approach that should be adopted to end the crisis, the PSC said dialogue to end the political crisis in Sudan should prioritize the signatories of the constitutional declaration and the Juba peace agreement.

The PSC “Underscores the primacy of dialogue between signatories of the Constitutional Declaration of August 2019 and the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) of October 2020 and all the stakeholders in the country as a viable approach” to end the current crisis.

Further, the meeting requested the AU Commission to propose a dialogue/mediation plan to promptly provide technical and other necessary support to Sudan.

Already in a decision adopted in November 2021, the Council reaffirmed the need to commit to the Constitutional Declaration and the JPA as the “recognized and credible pathway of the democratic transition in Sudan” and to fully implement it.

The military component and its allied former rebel groups in Darfur, the SLM of Minni Minnawi and JEM of Gibril Ibrahim call to amend the constitutional declaration to involve in the transition political groups that were not part of the revolution’s forces.

The Forces for Freedom and Change, the other signatory of the declaration, also call to amend it saying they do not want a partnership with the military who dishonoured the signed agreement and have killed hundreds of peaceful protesters since April 2019.

The PSC also stressed that the peace agreement “should continue to guide the transition plan” to avoid a return to war by the signatory groups.

The coup d’etat of October 2021 is seen as a serious threat to the peace pact signed in Juba in October 2020.

Three groups that joined the Sovereign Council say frustrated by the dissolution of the civilian-led transitional authority by army Commander-in-Chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The difference between the three peace groups and the military component, which controls the collegial presidency, pushed them to issue statements to express publically their positions, as it was the case when they denounced the coup d’etat and recently when the Sovereign Council ordered to evacuate former rebel combatants from the capital.