The U.S. appears to have launched an effort to sabotage Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s effort to bring peace to Sudan through holding a summit of leaders of Sudan’s neighboring countries. This summit, which will take place on July 13, will include Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Libya and hopefully Eritrea. All these countries have been affected by tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees fleeing the fighting between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces.
On July 10-11 U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and U.S. Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey showed up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where they were involved in two meetings related to mediating a peace agreement in Sudan. The first was a meeting of the Quartet of mediators from the regional group Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) comprising leaders from Kenya, South Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia, where it was proposed to send a pan-African military force into Sudan and a no-fly zone supposedly to protect civilians.
The Sudanese army and Transitional Sovereignty Council, which represent the government of Sudan, refused to attend the IGAD quartet meeting accusing the chairman of the Quartet, Kenyan President William Ruto, of supporting the Rapid Support Forces, although the RSF did send a representative.
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing the Quartet’s proposal to explore the possibility of deploying the East Africa Standby Force (EASF) of the African Union into Sudan. They also protested a statement by Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed about a power vacuum in Sudan and the need to impose a no-fly zone in Sudan, adding that any deployment of foreign troops would be considered an “act of aggression.”
The second meeting was of civilian delegations from the Forces for Freedom and Change, neither the Sudanese Army nor the Rapid Security Forces attended it.
