With the help of the international community, Sudan is preparing to initiate a mediation process between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
It is reported that Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is in contact with the Ethiopian government and TPLF leaders in order to bring the two parties to the negotiating table and allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians.
Sudan is becoming increasingly anxious about Ethiopia’s nine-month-old intensifying conflict, as war zones in the Tigray and Amhara regions border the country and refugees continue to flood in.
Officials in Khartoum also claim that the war might re-ignite other hotspots in the multiethnic country, citing the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, which borders Sudan, as an example, as it did in December 2020.
Samantha Power, the Head of the United States Agency for International Development, said on Tuesday in the University of Khartoum that the US supports the Sudanese initiative to end the Tigray war.
“We want to support Sudan’s transformation from a source of instability to a partner in resolving the challenges of a volatile region, most urgently by working together to address the conflict in Ethiopia, to which there is no military solution,” she said.
Furthermore, Hamdok informed the heads of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Eritrea, and a number of Western countries, including the United States, about this idea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Hamdok on Wednesday to discuss the spread of conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara and Afar areas, as well as the necessity for a diplomatic solution.
“Secretary Blinken and PM Hamdok agreed to encourage all parties to enter negotiations toward a ceasefire, to engage in an inclusive political dialogue to preserve the unity and integrity of the Ethiopian state, and to allow full humanitarian access to those in need,” announced the State Department.
