Somalia’s government has offered to mediate in the conflict between Sudan’s army and rival paramilitary forces, pledging to appoint a mediator to facilitate talks to end the near two-year war.
Somali State Minister for Foreign Affairs Omar Ali said in an interview with state television on March 7 that “Somalia is a member of the United Nations Security Council, and we are committed to promoting peace and stability in the region”.
“Sudan owes us a great debt, and we are determined to soon appoint a mediator between the two warring parties in the country,” the minister said.
Sudan’s warring military factions did not immediately respond to Somalia’s offer.
But the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is likely to reject it after Mogadishu condemned a charter the group announced in Kenya in February to form a “government of peace and unity”.
The RSF has been fighting Sudan’s army in a civil war since April 2023, leading to one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
Sudan’s foreign ministry protested at Kenya’s decision to allow the RSF to sign the charter in Nairobi, calling it “a clear breach of the UN charter, the Constitutive Act of the African Union and the established principles of the contemporary international order”.
