Conflict is most intense in Sudan between the army led by Burhan (right) and the Rapid Support led by Hemedti (agencies)

The Sudanese government announced on Saturday its refusal to participate in the 42nd extraordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to be held in Uganda next week, while the commander of the Rapid Support Forces announced his agreement to participate in the summit, which will discuss the conflict in Sudan, among other issues.

According to a statement issued by the Transitional Sovereignty Council, the Government of Sudan received an invitation from IGAD to attend the summit to be held in the Ugandan capital Kampala to discuss the problem of Somalia and what is happening in Sudan, but does not see the need to hold a summit to discuss Sudan before implementing the outcomes of the previous summit.

In its statement, the Sovereignty Council explained that it has been dealing positively with all initiatives aimed at establishing peace in Sudan, especially those issued by the IGAD, but the organization did not commit to implementing the outcomes of the Djibouti summit by holding a meeting between the President of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces and did not provide a convincing justification for canceling the meeting, which was scheduled for December 28.

According to the statement, IGAD spoke of technical reasons that prevented the meeting from taking place while the RSF commander was touring a number of OIC member states on the same date.

"We reaffirm that what is happening in Sudan is an internal matter and that our response to regional initiatives does not mean giving up our sovereign right to solve the problem of Sudan by the Sudanese," the council said.

Extraordinary Summit

On January 11, the President of Djibouti, which chairs the current session of the IGAD, Ismail Omar Guelleh, called on the member states of the organization to hold an extraordinary summit in Uganda on 18 of this month, to discuss the situation in Sudan and the dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia.

For his part, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo "Hemedti", announced in a statement Saturday his agreement to attend the summit.

"In line with our firm position in support of a comprehensive peaceful solution, which ends once and for all the wars in Sudan in general, and the war of the fifteenth of April in particular, I confirmed today my acceptance of the invitation to attend and participate in the session," Hemedti said in a statement.

Hemedti reiterated the commitment of the Rapid Support Forces to put an end to the suffering of the Sudanese resulting from the current war and that has been going on for years in the outskirts of Sudan.

Source : Al Jazeera + Websites