PORT SUDAN: Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, at war for months with paramilitaries, was headed to New York on Wednesday to address the UN General Assembly, his office said.
Burhan, de facto leader of Sudan since a 2021 coup, “will lead the Sudanese delegation” to the annual session, the Sovereignty Council he heads said in a statement.
The army chief has made a flurry of visits abroad in recent weeks after shifting base to Port Sudan late last month from army headquarters in Khartoum where he had been holed up under siege since fighting broke out with the paramilitary Rapid Suport Forces (RSF) of his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, on April 15.
Analysts have said his diplomatic offensive is a drive to burnish his legitimacy in the event of negotiations to end the fighting.
Burhan has already visited Egypt, South Sudan, Qatar, Eritrea, Turkiye and Uganda.
During his UN visit, Burhan intends to address the UN General Assembly and will attend “high level meetings” on the sidelines, the statement said.
The fighting in Sudan has killed at least 7,500 people, according to the NGO Acled and the United Nations says more than five million people have fled their homes.
Sudan army chief headed to UN General Assembly
https://arab.news/nh54v
Sudan army chief headed to UN General Assembly
- Analysts have said Burhan’s diplomatic offensive is a drive to burnish his legitimacy in negotiations to end the fighting
Trump offers to mediate Egypt-Ethiopia dispute on Nile River waters
- Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts and flooding, a claim Ethiopia rejects
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump offered on Friday to mediate a dispute over Nile River waters between Egypt and Ethiopia. “I am ready to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of ‘The Nile Water Sharing’ once and for all,” he wrote to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in a letter that also was posted on Trump’s Truth Social account.
Addis Ababa’s September 9 inauguration of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of anger in Cairo, which is downstream on the Nile.
Ethiopia, the continent’s second-most populous nation with more than 120 million people, sees the $5 billion dam on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.
Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts and flooding, a claim Ethiopia rejects.
Trump has praised El-Sisi in the past, including during an October trip to Egypt to sign a deal related to the Gaza conflict. In public comments, Trump has echoed Cairo’s concerns about the water issue.
