Bangkok Post

Army chief holds talks with Egypt’s Sisi in Cairo

CAIRO: Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Thursday met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, as the former’s war with his deputy-turned-rival approaches one year.

The pair “will hold joint bilateral discussion­s” and “discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations”, according to a statement from Sudan’s ruling sovereignt­y council.

Since last April, Gen Burhan has been at war with his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilita­ry Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In footage broadcast by the presidency, Mr Sisi embraced Gen Burhan — Sudan’s de facto leader since he and Gen Daglo led a joint coup in 2021 — at the airport in Cairo and received him in the presidenti­al palace with the ceremony reserved for heads of state.

The presidency also said the pair would discuss “de-escalating the situation” in Sudan.

Gen Burhan and his government have retreated to the country’s east, governing from the coastal city of Port Sudan, while the RSF controls much of the capital Khartoum, nearly the entire western Darfur region and much of the country’s south.

The war has killed tens of thousands, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town, according to United Nations experts.

It has also decimated the economy, destroyed infrastruc­ture and forced over 8 million people from their homes, according to UN figures.

For months, Cairo was Gen Burhan’s strongest ally in his war against the paramilita­ry.

When Gen Burhan finally exited a four-month RSF siege of his Khartoum military headquarte­rs in August, Egypt’s northern city of El Alamein was his first destinatio­n abroad.

The warring generals have since chased each other around regional capitals, each trying to position himself as lead statesman. But in recent months, the RSF’s Gen Daglo appears to have gained the diplomatic upper hand, while his troops made aggressive advances on the ground, pushing the army to retreat and prompting Egypt to distance itself from Gen Burhan, according to analysts.