CAIRO (Reuters) – United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in a phone call with Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, affirmed the UAE’s support for initiatives aiming at ending the crisis in Sudan, Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Thursday.
During the call, Sheikh Mohammed “affirmed the UAE’s keenness to support all solutions and initiatives aimed at halting escalation and ending the crisis in Sudan in a way that contributes to enhancing its stability and security and fulfilling the aspirations of its people”, WAM added.
It was the first public communication between the two leaders since their relations soured last year.
The Sudanese army accused the UAE at the U.N. Security Council in June of providing weapons and support to its rival warring party, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in the country’s 15-month-long conflict, which the Gulf country denied.
“The military aggression launched by the Rapid Support militia, supported with weapons by the Emirates, is deliberately and systematically targeting the villages and cities,” Sudanese U.N. Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed told the Security Council back in June.
In April last year, war erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over a transition to free elections.
The U.N. says that because of the war nearly 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – need aid, famine is looming and 10 million people have fled their homes.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Chris Reese and Sandra Maler)
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