Turkiye’s Erdogan offers to mediate in Sudan-UAE disputes

The Sudanese army accuses the UAE of providing weapons to its rival, the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.

Turkiye can step in to resolve disputes between Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told the head of the Sudan Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The Sudanese army, led by al-Burhan, accuses the UAE of providing weapons to its rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, and prolonging the war in Sudan. The UAE has rejected the allegations and accused the army of refusing to negotiate peace with its enemy.

Erdogan suggested in the call on Friday that Turkiye step in to resolve disputes between Sudan and the UAE, just as it has mediated a dispute between Horn of Africa neighbours Somalia and Ethiopia, the Turkish presidency said in a statement without elaborating.

The Turkish president also emphasised to al-Burhan Turkiye’s main principles of protecting Sudan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and preventing the country from becoming an arena of foreign intervention, the presidency said.

In a separate statement by the governing Sudan Sovereign Council, al-Burhan said he welcomed any role Turkiye could play in ending the war and called for greater Turkish investment in Sudan.

“He expressed his confidence in the position of the Turkish president and government in support of the Sudanese people and their choices,” the statement said.

Sudan has been mired in war since mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to Darfur and other regions.

More than 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began.

Food insecurity

About 25 million people in war-torn Sudan face acute food shortages with famine declared in the huge Zam Zam camp for displaced people in western Darfur.

In an interview with The Associated Press news agency on Thursday, World Food Programme (WFP) official Carl Skau cited progress over the past month in getting clearances to deliver aid across conflict lines and the border from Chad. And with roads drying up at the end of the rainy season, the WFP is able to deliver “much more food”, Skau said.

One convoy reached Zam Zam and two others were on the way but have been held up because of fighting in the past 10 days in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Skau said.

It is the only capital in Darfur still held by Sudanese forces. The others are held by the RSF.

WFP aid reached about 2.6 million people this month, Skau said, stressing that the international community should have done more to address the Sudan crisis “and needs to do more going forward”.