Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Tagalo (Hemeti), commander of the Rapid Support Forces fighting with the army in Sudan, arrived in Djibouti yesterday, leading regional efforts aimed at reaching a ceasefire between the two sides, whose clashes have been renewed. Yesterday.
Djibouti was the last stop of Taghlou's tour in East Africa, his first official foreign visit since the latest war in Sudan started in mid-April last year.
His tour, which includes Ethiopia and Uganda, comes at a time when the Intergovernmental Commission on Development in East Africa (IGAD) is redoubling its efforts to bring him and Sudan's army chief, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to talks.
The two military commanders have not met since the outbreak of the war, which has so far killed 12,000 people, according to ACLED estimates. According to the United Nations, the wars displaced more than seven million people. Tagalo indicated in a post on the “x” platform that he had presented his vision to Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guella to “reach a comprehensive solution that would end the war and end the suffering of the Sudanese people”.
In another post via “x”, Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssef explained that Daghlo's visit comes within the framework of his country's efforts aimed at a ceasefire in Sudan.
Important meeting
Youssef said via “x” on Saturday: “Next week, Djibouti, which chairs IGAD, will prepare for a dialogue in Sudan and hold a decisive meeting without adding details”. A meeting between the two sides to the conflict was due to take place in Djibouti on Thursday under the auspices of IGAD, but it was “postponed to early January for technical reasons”, the Djibouti foreign minister said on Wednesday.
The “Sudanese Scene” website said the meeting was postponed after conflicting reports regarding Hemeti's visit, while sources at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said the meeting between Al-Burhan and Hemeti was postponed. Until January.
Al-Fatih Qureshi, the official spokesman of Rapid Support, announced the commitment of his forces to the dates set by IGAD and said the organization had extended an official invitation to them. And he “denied all rumors in the media that Hemeti did not attend the meeting with al-Burhan.”
IGAD comprises eight member states: Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Eritrea.
Conflicts again
According to the Russian Sputnik agency, armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces in the capital Khartoum were renewed yesterday, with the Rapid Support Forces shelling military positions in central and northern Khartoum with heavy artillery.
Citing eyewitnesses, the Sudanese website reported that the army retaliated with drones and bombed several positions of support forces stationed in East Nile, Manshia and al-Zarif.
These operations resulted in plumes of smoke rising from the Al-Sahafa neighborhood, the vicinity of the Armored Corps, the Sports City, the Campground and the Mayo neighborhood south of Khartoum.
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