Hemedti (right) with Burhan (Getty Images)

The Sudanese saw a glimmer of hope during the chaos they have been living in for eight months, in a statement by the Regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) announcing that the warring parties in Sudan have agreed to speak face-to-face, and that the meeting between General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed "Hemedti", head of the Rapid Support Forces, will take place within two weeks.

However, this meeting, as the magazine says in a report by Augustine Bassili from Addis Ababa, has become uncertain now, because Burhan, according to Mehdi Brier, a member of the Civil Anti-War Front, "will try to delay this meeting for as long as possible, because his presence means acknowledging the defeat of the Sudanese army, and this recognition will affect his position as leader" who still represents Sudan on the international stage.

The relationship between the LNA and the RSF appears ambiguous, although the army was the architect of these Janjaweed militias under former President Omar al-Bashir to counter the rebellion in Darfur, and they were formalized as the Rapid Support Forces in 2013, with about 400 generals serving them.

stalemate

After Bashir's fall, Hemedti became the second-in-command after Burhan in the Sovereignty Council, and they conducted joint maneuvers to prevent their colleagues from civil society and political parties from implementing the democratic transition, and ended up seizing power together in the October 25, 2021 coup, which gradually exposed their differences, especially regarding the integration of the Rapid Support Forces into the ranks of the regular army.

The impasse remains with more than 12,6 people killed and 7.<> million displaced. "Both agree on the formation of a civilian government but on their own terms, as the army wants to integrate the RSF into its ranks, while the RSF wants to hold a grand national conference, and they refuse to join the army that they defeated," says Mehdi Berir.

Alexis Mohamed: "As in any armed conflict you have to expect anything," so the long-awaited glimmer of hope by the Sudanese, remains very timid for now.

Hemedti's men currently control about 90 percent of Khartoum along with four of Darfur's five capitals, and they recently captured the central city of Wad Madani, and a Western diplomatic source believes that this new victory will force Burhan to the negotiating table, despite the resistance of the Islamist wing of his supporters.

Neighboring Countries

Political analyst Dalia Abdel Moneim hopes border states will eventually force warlords to negotiate because the burden of conflict falls on Chad, South Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, which host more than 1.2 million refugees, and diplomatic tensions could also accelerate progress toward a peace deal.

Faced with the risk of a regional conflagration, Dalia Abdel Moneim notes a slight decline in the dialectic of the two camps: "The situation is very fluid. "As in any armed conflict you have to expect anything," says Alexis Mohamed, an adviser to the Djiboutian president, so the long-awaited glimmer of hope by the Sudanese remains very timid at the moment.

Source: Le Point