Sudanese RSF leader visits Ethiopia during rare trip abroad

NAIROBI (AFP): The leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrived Thursday in Ethiopia on the second stop of his first trip abroad since war erupted with Sudan’s army in April.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s visits to Ethiopia and Uganda come as regional diplomats scramble to broker a meeting between the RSF commander and his rival, Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.

The warring generals have not met face-to-face since the outbreak of fighting between their forces that has killed over 12,000 people by some conservative estimates, and forced million to flee.

Daglo was greeted upon arrival in Addis Ababa by Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, according to a post on X by the country’s foreign ministry that didn’t provide any further details.

On Wednesday, Daglo visited Uganda and met with President Yoweri Museveni, the RSF leader and Museveni’s office said.

Daglo said he “put forward our vision to engage in negotiations, cease hostilities, and rebuild the Sudanese state based on new, just foundations.”

He is also expected to visit Kenya in coming days, a source close to the RSF told AFP.

“After having visited Uganda and Ethiopia, Hemeti will go to Nairobi in order to try to rally the member states of IGAD to his cause before going to Djibouti to meet General Al-Burhan,” the source said, referring to Daglo by another commonly used name.

IGAD, a bloc representing eight countries in the wider East Africa region, has been trying to bring Al-Burhan and Daglo together since war erupted on April 15.

On Wednesday, Djibouti’s foreign ministry said a meeting between the rivals planned for December 28 had been “postponed to early January 2024 for technical reasons.”

The UN Security Council last week voiced “alarm” at the growing violence in Sudan and the spread of fighting to areas previous considered a haven for those displaced by the conflict.

By the end of November, at least 12,190 people had been killed in the fighting, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data project.

The United Nations says more than seven million people have been internally displaced by the war, while another 1.5 million have fled into neighboring countries.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes.