Sudan on Monday rejected an invitation by Kenya for holding a meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Quartet to discuss the Sudanese crisis.
It came as United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned that Sudan was descending into death and destruction at an unprecedented speed.
"The scale and speed of Sudan's descent into death and destruction is unprecedented. Without strong international support, Sudan could quickly become a locus of lawlessness, radiating insecurity across the region" the secretary-general told a pledging conference on Monday.
A record 25 million people, more than half Sudan's population, are in need of aid according to the UN, which has two appeals for tackling the crisis: The humanitarian response within Sudan, and the refugee response outside its borders.
In a statement, the Sudanese foreign ministry deemed the Kenyan invitation for holding a ministerial meeting of the IGAD Quartet unwelcome.
Sudan “is still awaiting a response from East African bloc regarding its objection to Kenya’s chairmanship of the IGAD quartet,” the statement said.
The ministry particularly rejected Kenya’s description of the Sudanese conflict as “a fight between two generals”.
Seek solution
Last week, IGAD announced the formation of a four-way committee headed by Kenya and South Sudan to seek a solution to the conflict in Sudan. Ethiopia and Somalia are members of the committee.
But Khartoum objected to Kenya’s chairmanship of the IGAD Quartet.
Sudan has been ravaged by clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary gr oup since April, in a conflict that killed nearly 1,000 people and injured 5,000 others, according to local medics.
At the heart of the ongoing crisis are two opposing military figures: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.
Declared emergency
Since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency, Sudan has been without a functioning government. The move was widely condemned by political forces as a "coup."
The transitional period, which began in August 2019 following the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, was originally scheduled to conclude with elections in early 2024.
