Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan arrived in Egypt on Monday for talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, as fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rages on in his homeland.
Gen Al Burhan’s visit to Sudan’s powerful northern neighbour comes a day after his office announced he had appointed a new acting foreign minister, replacing Hussein Awad Ali with career diplomat Ali Youssef Ahmed. The army leader has also appointed three acting ministers for the portfolios of information, commerce and Awqaf (Islamic endowments), a statement said.
Sudan has had no government since Gen Al Burhan and ally-turned-enemy Gen Mohamed Dagalo, RSF commander, seized power in a coup in October 2021, toppling a civilian-led administration and derailing the country’s democratic transition after the dictator Omar Al Bashir had been deposed in April 2019.
Sudan has since been run by military-backed caretaker ministers, with Gen Al Burhan as de facto head of state. War between the army and the RSF broke out in April 2023 when months of tension over their future mandate in a democratic Sudan boiled over.
Tens of thousands have since been killed and more than 10 million displaced, three million of whom fled the country. Additionally, the war has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with an estimated 25 million – more than half Sudan’s population – facing acute hunger.
Gen Al Burhan’s visit to Egypt coincides with an army offensive to reverse losses to the RSF in the war’s early days, with troops now making battlefield gains in parts of Khartoum, the capital, and Al Jazira region to the south of the capital.
Egypt has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Sudan, where the army insists the civil war can end only if the RSF surrenders and lays down its arms.
