General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo aka Hemeti (left), with the chairman of the Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. © Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency via AFP

The regional bloc IGAD has called for a face-to-face meeting between Sudan’s military leadership and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force in two weeks to resolve the months-long conflict.

The 42nd Extraordinary Assembly of the IGAD Heads of State and Government held in Uganda on Thursday, deliberated on the conflict in Sudan but analysts say the talks boycotted by the faction of General al-Burhan, will bears less fruits.

In a communique after the meeting, IGAD said it “recalled the commitment of the parties to the conflict for a face-to-face meeting within 14 days and called upon the parties to meet within two weeks.”

The bloc also stressed that IGAD Member States will take up all measures to ensure a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Sudan and directed its Secretariat to provide an update to the Assembly.

Sudan’s junta led by General al-Burhan announced previously that it was snubbing the IGAD invitation to attend the latest peace talks in Uganda in protest against the invitation of the leader of RSF.

“The invitation of the IGAD Secretariat to the leader of the Janjaweed militia to attend the emergency summit of IGAD No 42 is a flagrant violation of the agreement establishing IGAD and all the rules and traditions of the work of international organizations,” Sudan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The junta said the invitation of General Dagalo is a “gross disregard for the victims of genocide, ethnic cleansing, sexual violence and all the atrocities practiced by Janjaweed gangs” in different parts of the country.

According to the United Nations, more than 12,000 people have been killed in war-torn Sudan since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces on 15 April 2023.