Sudan quietly returns to Igad

Sudan is returning to the table of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), the regional bloc that tried to mediate the conflict in Khartoum but was rebuffed.

And after nearly a year of frozen relations with the bloc, Port Sudan (the interim headquarters of the military government) is showing interest in participating in the activities of the organisation it had initially derided.

Last week, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) sent two senior officials to a high-level security meeting in Mombasa to discuss cross-border security challenges in the Horn of Africa.

The workshop, entitled 'High-Level Forum on Regional Cooperation and Coordination Mechanisms against Transitional Security Threats Statute and Operationalisation', brought together security chiefs and policy implementers from the Igad region. Sudan was notable for sending its two senior officials, Elrayih Mohamed Elawad and Ahmed Makki Ahmed Eltahir.

Read: The real cost of Sudan’s war

Igad sources told Nation.Africa that the organisation had invited Sudan last month when the meeting was put together to discuss emerging challenges in the Horn. But Sudan was not always a sure bet to attend the meetings because it had previously publicly criticised the bloc for what it saw as interference. Within Igad, however, there is an open door for Sudan to return, according to one official.

"They are always welcome because it is better to be inside than outside," said a senior official at the organisation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Sudan issue.

The return to meetings, the official added, was a sign that Khartoum was willing both to play a role in Igad and to allow its problems to be resolved through regional dialogue.

Sudan suspended its membership of the Igad bloc in January over an attempt to mediate in the country's brutal conflict. This came after Igad tried to mediate between the SAF and the rival paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). After a summit in Kampala, Uganda, Igad had asked both the army and the RSF to meet face-to-face, a move that angered Khartoum.

The Sudanese army said at the time that Sudan would "suspend membership of this organisation" because the summit had invited RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo 'Hemedti' before asking him to meet army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Sudan's Foreign Affairs ministry said the Igad decision violated Sudan's sovereignty and “wounding the sentiments of victims of rebel militia atrocities”. For this week's meeting in Mombasa, the same ministry said it had agreed to attend voluntarily.

Read: Sudan war: What’s in it for the United Arab Emirates?

Igad, the United States and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey had separately tried to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict without success.

The first ceasefire deal demanded by Igad, which began in April 2023, was violated on the same day. Another series of ceasefire agreements brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US also collapsed. So did a cessation of hostilities pact negotiated in the Saudi city of Jeddah, known as the Jeddah Process. Last week, the US and Saudi governments said they had invited the parties to resume talks in Jeddah, RSF has confirmed its attendance, but the army have set conditions for any dialogue: that RSF surrender.

However, the army have struggled to maintain control over large parts of the country captured by RSF.

Within Igad, however, officials believe that the bloc is capable of contributing to a solution and have argued that the army (SAF) is wrong to seek to isolate the bloc.

Igad was originally involved in mediation in Sudan, which helped create South Sudan after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. South Sudan seceded in 2011, but went to war soon after, and Igad also helped mediate a peace deal known as the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).

Igad is made up of eight states – Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia.