The Foreign Ministry in Sudan has announced suspending its involvement in mediation attempts with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) regarding the current crisis in Sudan.

IGAD is a collection of East African states that have offered to arbitrate between the leaders of Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, with whom Sudan has been battling for nine months in a violent war that has displaced millions.

This comes days before IGAD’s scheduled summit to be held in Kampala, Uganda, on slated for January 18, 2024 to review developments in Sudan and Somalia.

The foreign ministry further stated that relations with IGAD were suspended after the regional bloc added Sudan to the agenda of a meeting, and invited Dagalo to attend.

The ministry criticized Dagolo’s invitation as a “dangerous precedent” in IGAD history and a violation of Sudan’s sovereignty, citing a substantial infringement of the bloc’s charters and the laws regulating international and regional organizations.

Sudan’s war broke out in April 2023 over a plan to shift away from military control. The war triggered a massive humanitarian catastrophe, damaged the capital, Khartoum, and provoked waves of ethnically motivated killings in Darfur.