Museveni offers to mediate between Sudan warring parties
Oct 08, 2024
“I am ready to mediate the conflict if they are agreeable," Museveni said on October 7, 2024, during a meeting with the United Nations Envoy for Sudan at State House Entebbe.
Museveni in a group photo after meeting with the United Nations Envoy for Sudan at State House Entebbe on October 7, 2024. (PPU)
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President Yoweri Museveni has expressed his willingness to mediate the ongoing conflict in Sudan, should both parties be open to his involvement.
“I am ready to mediate the conflict if they are agreeable," Museveni said on October 7, 2024, during a meeting with the United Nations Envoy for Sudan at State House Entebbe.
The Ugandan president reiterated his commitment to joining efforts to restore peace in Sudan, emphasising that the root cause of the conflict lies in the promotion of identity politics, which destabilises a country as diverse as Sudan.
He urged the warring factions to agree to a ceasefire and to hand over power to the people of Sudan.
The envoy, Ramtane Lamamra, assured President Museveni of the UN's full support in resolving the conflict.
United Nations Envoy for Sudan during a meeting at State House Entebbe. (PPU)
“Mr President, if there is anything the UN can do to assist in restoring peace to Sudan, please involve us. We are ready and willing to work with you,” Lamamra said.
The UN envoy also highlighted the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, noting that while efforts have been made to secure localised ceasefire, fighting continues, and civilians remain at risk.
“Despite the ongoing conflict and the flow of weapons to both sides, there is still an opportunity to move forward and secure a ceasefire to address the urgent humanitarian needs,” he added.
The meeting was also attended by foreign affairs state minister, Henry Okello Oryem, as well as UN officials, Nayla Hajjar and Hanan Elbadawy.
Foreign affairs state minister, Henry Okello Oryem looking on during the meeting at State House Entebbe. (PPU)
Background
Museveni's offer to broker an end to 15 months of fighting between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces follows several others including that of US.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes. Both sides have been accused of war crimes.
(PPU)
The war's key players
The protagonists
In 2021, Sudan's army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, seized power in a coup alongside his deputy, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemeti.
The pair pushed civilian politicians out of a power-sharing agreement set up after the 2019 overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Less than two years later, on April 15, 2023, rivalry between the two erupted into full-fledged war, turning the capital Khartoum into a battleground.
For decades, Sudanese leaders had used paramilitaries to fight wars in the country's far flung regions -- including Arab militias known as Janjaweed, which became the RSF in 2013.
On Bashir's orders, the Janjaweed mounted a scorched-earth campaign against non-Arab minorities suspected of supporting rebels in the western region of Darfur from 2003 which was widely regarded as genocide.
Internal powers
Besides the army and the paramilitaries, "a third camp is increasingly significant in Darfur, made up of rebel groups aligned with neither Burhan nor Hemeti," according to Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.
Sudan's many armed groups have adopted different strategies. Some, particularly in Darfur, have negotiated local truces between the army and RSF, while others have entered the fray in support of Burhan's troops.
Within months of the war breaking out, civilians began taking up arms in what the army has lauded as a "popular resistance" movement to defend against RSF advances.
Former prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, ousted by Burhan and Hemeti in 2021, now heads a bloc of political parties known as Taqadum, which the army accuses of being a front for the RSF.
Taqadum politicians in turn claim some Islamists who held key positions in Bashir's ousted regime -- their political enemies for decades -- are using the army to regain power.
Both sides have secured outside support from competing foreign interests.
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