Sudan finance minister softens stance over Adré border crossing

Finance minister Jibril Ibrahim seemed to soften his stance regarding closing the Adré border crossing between Sudan and Chad, following a heated exchange earlier this week between him and US officials. The crossing is set to close in November unless a new agreement is reached.

Jibril Ibrahim, Sudanese finance minister and leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)-aligned Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), stipulated two “strict” conditions upon which the Adré crossing, crucial for aid deliveries and refugee movements between Chad and Sudan, could remain open. In a post on X on Tuesday, he stated:

As previously reported by Dabanga, Ibrahim initially asserted that the Adré border crossing should be promptly closed “today before tomorrow”, accusing it of being a “main conduit for lethal weapons” aiding the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Three days prior to setting Jibril softening his stance, Tom Perriello, the US Special Envoy to Sudan, accused Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission—linked to the SAF and JEM—of imposing “bureaucratic barriers” that delay humanitarian aid for over seven million Sudanese in need, calling for the border crossing to remain open.

The same day, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller echoed Perriello’s statement via X, urging the Sudanese government to keep the crossing open past November 15.

It is worth noting that the Sudanese finance minister was in Washington DC, the capital of the United States, on Tuesday to attend a World Bank meeting.

The RSF controls West Darfur, where the Sudanese side of the Adré crossing is located. RSF spokesperson Basha Tabig criticised the Sudanese government’s position, arguing the government is “giving away what is not theirs to give”.

“These obstacles that the Port Sudan government is putting in place are deliberate to starve the Sudanese people and amount to collective punishment”, he said on X yesterday.

Crucial route

The Sudanese government had agreed in August to open the Adré crossing for three months, with its closure scheduled for November. While the United Nations and aid agencies rely on the crossing to deliver aid, international reports claim it is also used to smuggle weapons to the RSF.

For instance, a damning investigation, published by The New York Times on September 25, detailed how the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is smuggling weapons across the Chad-Sudan border under the guise of the humanitarian aid organisation and counterpart of the Red Cross, Emirates Red Crescent.

The Adré crossing has been a crucial route for Darfuris in particular, allowing thousands to flee RSF-led violence in West Darfur last year, which the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has described as an “ethnic cleansing”. More than 862,000 people have fled Sudan to Chad since the war started in mid-April 2023, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).