WAD MADANI SUDAN
\nSudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said Saturday \u201cwe don\u2019t need\u201d the African Union to resolve the country\u2019s nearly five-month conflict, as new figures put the death toll at over 7,000.
\nDiplomatic tensions have flared since the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, met last week with a political adviser to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), prompting rebuke from Burhan\u2019s government.
\nThe brutal war since April 15 between the army and the RSF has killed \u201cnearly 7,500\u201d people, according to a Friday report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project which noted the toll was \u201ca conservative estimate.\u201d
\nACLED as well as activists and aid groups on the ground have repeatedly warned that casualty figures out of Sudan are underreported as fighting hampers access to many areas and the warring sides do not disclose deaths among their ranks.
\nMuch of the violence has been concentrated around the capital Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, where witnesses again reported clashes on Saturday between army forces and the RSF on the outskirts of El Fasher, the North Darfur state capital.
\nDiplomatic efforts to end the fighting between the forces of Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, have repeatedly floundered.
\nMultiple truces brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the early stages of the war had been systematically violated before the two mediators adjourned talks in June.
\nMore recently, some moves by the army chief including trips to Egypt, South Sudan and Qatar have signalled a potential return to diplomacy. But in a speech Saturday rallying troops in the southern state of Blue Nile, Burhan seemed to shun regional mediation efforts.
\n\u201cIf this is your approach, we don\u2019t need your help,\u201d the army chief said of the African Union, referring to Faki\u2019s recent meeting with the RSF adviser, Youssef Ezzat.
\nThe Burhan-controlled foreign ministry has called the meeting \u201ca dangerous precedent\u201d and \u201ca clear violation\u201d of the continental bloc\u2019s norms, saying it \u201cshould hold no place for rebel movements and criminal terrorist militias.\u201d
\nMohamed El Hacen Lebatt, a spokesman for the AU Commission, said in a statement Thursday the organization was committed to interacting \u201cwith all parties.\u201d
\nLebatt noted that no Sudanese party had expressed \u201cany reservation\u201d when \u201cthe same approach\u201d was adopted by other international actors.
\nThe AU suspended Sudan\u2019s membership in 2021 after Burhan and Daglo together led a coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the ouster of longtime strongman Omar Al-Bashir.
\nSpeaking in the Blue Nile city of Al-Damazin on Saturday, Burhan also took East African bloc IGAD to task, after his administration has repeatedly accused mediation coordinator Kenya of siding with the RSF.
\nIGAD \u201chas deviated from its course,\u201d Burhan said. \u201cWe Sudanese can solve our problems ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WAD MADANI SUDAN Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said Saturday \u201cwe don\u2019t need\u201d the African Union to resolve the country\u2019s nearly five-month conflict, as new figures put the death toll at over 7,000. Diplomatic tensions have flared since the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, met last week with a political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-355087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n