KHARTOUM: Sudan on Monday announced it was returning to east African bloc IGAD, two years after freezing its membership over a decision to invite rival paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to a summit.
“The government of the Republic of Sudan will resume its full activity in the membership” in the Djibouti-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Sudan had suspended its membership in January 2024 after the bloc invited the head of rival paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to a summit in Uganda to discuss the country’s brutal conflict.
The RSF has been at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The foreign ministry cited a statement by IGAD which reaffirmed “its full recognition of Sudan’s sovereignty and the unity of its lands and people” and pledged “non-interference in member states’ internal affairs.”
The decision to rejoin IGAD follows a meeting in January between the bloc’s executive secretary, Workneh Gebeyehu, and Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris.
Following the meeting, the bloc issued a statement saying it “condemns all forms of violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces and reaffirms its full support for the unity and sovereignty of the Republic of the Sudan, as well as its existing national institutions.”
The nearly three-year conflict has effectively split Sudan between army-controlled areas in the north, east and center, and those controlled by the paramilitaries in the west and parts of the south.
The RSF has also formed a rival parallel administration in Nyala, the South Darfur state capital, but it has received no international recognition.
IGAD on Monday welcomed Sudan’s decision to return, describing it as “a reaffirmation of regional solidarity and collective commitment to peace, stability, and cooperation across the region.”