The leader of Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said on Thursday that he had visited Ethiopia and met with the country's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Demeke Mekonnen, in his second confirmed appearance outside Sudan since the conflict between the paramilitary forces and the Sudanese army began in mid-April.
"Earlier this morning, I arrived to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was greeted with warmth and generosity by the Ethiopian people. We were received by Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen. We discussed the need to bring a swift end to this war, the historical crisis in Sudan, and how to best alleviate the hardships of the Sudanese people," Dagalo said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Dagalo announced that he had visited Uganda and met with President Yoweri Museveni to discuss developments in Sudan ahead of negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Djibouti between the RSF commander and his rival, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and head of Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council.
Both Ethiopia and Uganda confirmed the visits of the RSF leader, whose whereabouts during the conflict were unknown, with some reports claiming he had been injured or killed.
Earlier, an informed source in the Sudanese government told Sputnik that the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is set to travel to Djibouti on Thursday to hold a meeting with Dagalo, also known as Hamedeti, under the auspices of IGAD to end the conflict in Sudan.
The meeting between the two rivals, the first since the fighting began, was announced by IGAD itself earlier this month.
Violent clashes between the SAF and the RSF erupted in April of this year. Since then, the parties have implemented a series of temporary nationwide ceasefires, but none have contributed to a resolution of the conflict. In late October, delegations from both sides resumed negotiations in the Saudi city of Jeddah, but hostilities continued throughout the country. Finally, the Jeddah talks were suspended again after fighting intensified in central Sudan in early December.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said months of fighting in the North African country could lead to disease outbreaks and a catastrophic collapse of the health system. The number of internally displaced people in Sudan has surpassed 7 million, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM).