East African nations are going to convene in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, in the next 10 days as part of concentrated efforts to tackle the ongoing Sudanese conflict, the spokesman for the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Meles Alem, said.
Speaking at the press briefing on Thursday, he explained that the meeting is aimed at seeking solutions to the crisis in Sudan and fostering regional cooperation in ensuring peace. He further elaborated that Ethiopia will host this important meeting, adding that representatives from Djibouti, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya will attend the summit.
"The direct talks between the Sudan warring parties [is] to be facilitated by the leaders of the [Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)] Quartet - Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Somalia - and will be held next week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia according to the decision of the IGAD Summit," he said.
IGAD is an eight-nation bloc or west African countries which, in addition to the Quartet, comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan and Uganda. The spokesman emphasized the urgency of ensuring peace and stability in Sudan as the conflict - which has resulted in hundreds of deaths - constitutes a major security threat to the whole region.
Alem noted that the four-way mediation mechanism was established during the 14th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held on 12 June in Djibouti.
On Monday, in a final communique of the meeting, IGAD named Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti as members of a Quartet to orchestrate a resolution to the Sudanese conflict. The Quartet was expected to arrange face-to-face meeting between Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan, and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Apart from that, the member states agreed "to secure a commitment from the leadership of the SAF and RSF to establish a humanitarian corridor".
During the summit, Kenya's President William Ruto announced that his country is ready to take the initiative to mediate talks between Sudan's opposing military figures.
However, after the announcement, Sudan rejected Ruto's appointment as head of a Quartet to facilitate peace under the regional bloc. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement accused Kenya of "adopting the positions of the Rapid Support Militia, sheltering its members and providing them with various types of support."
On Wednesday, the ministry said that the Sudanese delegation participating in the IGAD summit expressed its disagreement and objection to a number of paragraphs in the draft final statement. It was noted that these paragraphs were not discussed and agreed upon with the Sudanese side, and therefore the delegation called on the IGAD Secretariat to delete them.
On 15 April, violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the paramilitary RSF, with the epicenter in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Since then, multiple truces have been agreed and broken. After an attempt to observe ceasefire at the end of May collapsed, the US imposed sanctions on both rival generals.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, 866 people have been killed and thousands wounded in the two months of clashes. It was indicated that 24.7 million people - more than half the population - are in need of humanitarian aid and protection.