Sudan FA Ministry summons Kenyan ambassador, Hemedti visits South Africa

Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Ali El Sadig announced yesterday that Sudan summoned the Kenyan ambassador to Sudan to protest against the official reception for Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, organised by the Kenyan government on Wednesday. Hemedti also met the sultan of the Fur tribe in Nairobi. Continuing his Africa tour, the RSF commander visited South Africa yesterday.

The minister said in a statement to the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that the consultation meeting with the ambassador will cover all possibilities for the outcome of Sudan’s relations with Kenya, which he accused of “supporting rebel leaders and supporters and conspiring with hostile regional powers against Sudan.

El Sadig referred to “the terrible violations committed by Hemedti’s disbanded forces and the destruction they caused to the country’s infrastructure and the property of the Sudanese”, as he put it.

Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, chaired by El Burhan, already stated in June last year that “Kenya is not neutral and is home to RSF rebel leaders”.

In addition to meeting President William Ruto in the Kenyan capital on Wednesday, the RSF commander also met with Ahmed Ali Dinar, sultan of the Fur tribe, in Nairobi, and discussed the humanitarian situation in Darfur. According to a post on his X account (formerly Twitter), he lauded the native administration* leaders in Sudan’s western region and their neutrality during the current war, and expressed his aspiration for the coordination of efforts “to alleviate the suffering of the people of Darfur and achieve sustainable security, peace and stability”. 

Tour

On Sunday, the RSF leader visited Djibouti to meet President Ismail Guelleh on Sunday. Last week, he held talks in Ethiopia with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and in Uganda with President Yoweri Museveni.

Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, commander-in-chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), has lashed out at countries that received Hemedti on his current tour, accusing them of “partnering in the crimes committed by these murderers”.

In September last year, the SAF commander visited several neighbouring countries and Turkey, in a bid to coordinate “initiatives to address the Sudanese crisis”.

The editor-in-chief of the Sudanese newspaper El Jazeera, Ashraf Abdelaziz, commented at the time that “El Burhan’s failure to establish legitimacy is exacerbated by his subsequent failure to visit neighbouring countries, including. Ethiopia, Chad, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia”.

Pretoria

Yesterday, Hemedti continued his tour to member states of the African Union and travelled to Pretoria, where he provided South-African President Cyril Ramaphosa with “a comprehensive explanation about the reasons for the outbreak of war in Sudan, about the parties behind it that support the continuation of the conflict” and explained President Ramaphosa “the extent of the destruction and deliberate sabotage [by the SAF] of basic infrastructure, and the killing and displacement of thousands of civilian victims caused by airstrikes”.

The meeting was “fruitful,”, Hemedti said in a post on his X account. He also briefed Ramaphosa on the efforts made to stop the war at the US-Saudi led Jeddah platform, as well as by the horn of Africa’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) , and “our full readiness to stop the war”.

* The Native Administration was instituted by British colonial authorities seeking a pragmatic system of governance that allowed for effective control with limited investment and oversight by the state. The state-appointed native administration leaders also took on new responsibilities for executing policies, collecting taxes, and mobilising labour on behalf of the central government. According to the Darfur Bar Association (DBA), the Native Administration during the 30-year rule of dictator Omar Al Bashir did not represent the real community leaders.