IGAD envoy briefs Burhan about their plan for Sudanese crisis

March 27, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Ismail Wais, IGAD peace envoy met on Sunday with the head of the Transitional Sovereign Council to brief him about the plan of the East African block to end the political strife in Sudan.

“The Chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, met the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan, Ambassador Ismail Wais who briefed him about the IGAD initiative to achieve stability and peace in Sudan,” reads a statement released by the Sovereign Council after the meeting.

According to the statement, al-Burhan welcomed the IGAD initiative and stressed his support for achieving its goals.

For his part, Wais described the meeting with al-Burhan as “fruitful, encouraging and beneficial”.

The foreign ministry in Khartoum had rejected an IGAD call for a meeting in Entebbe, Uganda earlier this month to discuss the Sudanese crisis and to appoint a special envoy for peace in Sudan.

Sudan, which is the Chair of the regional bloc, said the IGAD executive secretary is not entitled to decide to hold this meeting without referring to Khartoum.

For his part, Workneh Gebeyehu said he consulted with the IGAD doyen President Museveni who welcomed the idea and accepted to host it.

On March 17, al-Burhan travelled to Entebbe to discuss the matter with Museveni agreed with him to hold the meeting at the earliest date.

A fact-finding mission last January was in Khartoum and made a report to the IGAD leaders about the Sudanese crisis including several recommendations on how to resolve it.

The report focused more on “the incoherence and disunity” of the civilian forces than the responsibility of the military component in the ongoing crisis.

The IGAD initially planned to lead the mediation alone. However, the UNITAMS and the Africa Union agreed to work together and opened the door for the east African bloc to join them.

(ST)