A Sudanese official confirmed yesterday, Tuesday, that the army commander, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, will not meet his opponent, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, “Hamedti,” “under the current circumstances,” the day after Kenya announced its endeavor to arrange a meeting between them in an attempt to put an end to the conflict. “Al-Burhan will not sit with Hamidti under the current circumstances,” the government official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. This comes in reference to Kenyan President William Ruto’s assertion of seeking to hold a direct meeting between the two parties during the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in East Africa, which was held in Djibouti on Monday. “Kenya is committed to bringing together the two Sudanese generals in a face-to-face meeting to find a lasting solution to the crisis,” Ruto told reporters, according to a statement issued by the presidency. A draft statement about the IGAD meeting, published by Ruto’s office, also mentioned working to arrange a “face-to-face meeting between (Al-Burhan and Dagalo) in one of the capitals of the region.” There was no comment from Dagalo or his forces. The two military commanders have not met since the outbreak of battles between their forces in Khartoum and other Sudanese regions on the 15th of last April, the day they were scheduled to meet for negotiations facilitated by the United Nations. Since the start of the conflict, more than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), but the actual number of victims may be much higher, according to relief agencies and international organizations.
