Sudan Suspends Membership in East African Bloc IGAD

Sudan has officially suspended its membership in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an influential East African bloc, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday. This decision, communicated by Transitional Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to the current IGAD president, stems from the bloc’s perceived negligence of Sudan’s prior request to halt all IGAD engagements relating to Sudanese affairs.

The move follows the IGAD’s recent summit in Kampala, Uganda, on January 18, which Sudan boycotted. The summit’s agenda included discussions on the ongoing crisis in Sudan, a point of contention for the Sudanese government. The Foreign Ministry criticized the final communique of the IGAD summit for containing statements that infringe upon Sudan’s sovereignty, declaring that Sudan will not adhere to any IGAD resolutions regarding its internal matters.

This development comes in the wake of rising tensions in Sudan, marked by deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 15, 2023. The conflict has resulted in over 12,000 deaths and displaced more than 7.4 million people, both internally and externally, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

During an emergency summit on December 9, 2023, in Djibouti, which currently chairs IGAD, the bloc agreed to arrange a meeting between the leaders of the SAF and RSF. Initially scheduled to take place within two weeks, the meeting was subsequently postponed for “technical reasons.”