Third Foreign Visit Since the Outbreak of Conflict: al-Burhan to Doha
In his third foreign trip since the conflict erupted in Sudan five months ago, the leader of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, embarked on an official visit to Qatar on Thursday morning.
According to a statement from the Transitional Sovereign Council, which al-Burhan currently chairs, “He headed… to the Qatari capital, Doha, on an official visit.”
The Council added in its statement that Burhan “will hold talks during the visit with the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, addressing the bilateral relations between the two countries, ways to enhance them, common interests, and the developments of the situation in Sudan.”
Al-Burhan departed from the city of Port Sudan, located on the Red Sea coast in the eastern part of the country, where the airport has been the only one operational since the fighting erupted on April 15th between the army under his command and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti.
Qatar is the third foreign destination for Burhan since the start of the conflict. He previously visited Egypt on August 29th, where he met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the city of Alamein, and on Monday, he visited South Sudan and met with its President Salva Kiir.
These visits come amidst reports of negotiations between al-Burhan and Hemeti outside the country, in an effort to find a solution to the conflict that has resulted in the deaths of nearly five thousand people and the displacement of 4.8 million, both internally and externally.
Saudi-American mediations in recent months led to ceasefire agreements, but they did not hold. Additionally, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiated a regional initiative that also did not yield results.
There seems to be no field resolution in sight as clashes continue between the two sides in various parts of the country. On Wednesday, hundreds of families were displaced from a suburb of Khartoum following the killing of 19 civilians in an army shelling on positions of the Rapid Support Forces, but they missed their target, according to activists and residents, as reported by AFP.
