Djibouti President: IGAD Needs Bold Leadership
Sudan Events – Follow up
President Ismail Guelleh of Djibouti, current chair of the East African authority for development (IGAD)has underlined that mediation in the Sudan conflict and in other areas of the region require bold leadership.
President Guelleh was talking during the IGAD summit meeting held in the Ugandan capital of Kampala to review the situation in the Sudan and the tension between Ethiopia and Somalia
He said the heads of IGAD countries were meeting at a time the region was going through difficult times, be it at the level of the destructive conflict in the Sudan or the serious developments in the relations between Somalia and Ethiopia
He said these challenges and others in the region require bold leadership and a joint vision that overcome ideologies and borders.
The IGAD meeting issued a final communiqué in which it called on the parties to the conflict in the Sudan to engage in negotiation and to observe ceasefire
The east African block IGAD is part of the regional and continental mediation efforts to end the fighting in the Sudan, working along with Saudi Arabia, the United States of America who facilitated previous round of indirect talks that did not materialize in ending the conflict. The military leaders of the two sides have not been able to meet face to face ever since the fighting broke in April 2023.
But on Tuesday the Sudan has suspended its relations with bloc on the issue of mediation. The freezing following an invitation by the IGAD to the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support militia Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to attend the summit meeting. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused IGAD of setting a serious precedent by inviting the militia leader to attend an IGAD summit meeting.
