Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council, traveled to Doha on Wednesday for his first official visit to the country. Al-Burhan had separate meetings the day after with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, respectively. The aim of the visit was declared to be based on discussing bilateral issues, including trade and regional issues. The visit by the Sudanese leader is the first to the Gulf state since the military ousting of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, after which some arrangements between the two countries were suspended.
In a statement given after the two meetings, al-Burhan indicated that they have more than 36 bilateral agreements and protocols signed with Qatar, and that they have agreed to initiate these agreements in the coming week or after a Qatari delegation will visit Sudan the following week. An Al Jazeera reporter also commented on the meeting by saying that Qatar currently has around $3.8 billion worth of investments in the North African country, which the Sudanese government intends to increase in the near future.
Among the subjects addressed in the talks also include the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute between Ethiopia and the downstream countries of Sudan and Egypt. Al-Burhan has underlined that the topic was talked on, and that the Qatari leaders were informed that the GERD discussion is a problem, and dialogues and negotiations with Ethiopia and Egypt have not reached a real solution as of yet. These comments have come two days after the latest round of talks in Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, failed once again to produce any results.
