Sudan’s military leader visits Egypt on his first trip abroad since the country plunged into war

CAIRO, Aug 29: Sudan’s top military officer arrived in Egypt on Tuesday on his first trip abroad since
the country plunged into a bitter conflict this year, authorities said.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, chairman of the ruling Sovereign Council, was received by Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at the airport in the Mediterranean city of el-Alamein, according to
the council.
The council said in an earlier statement the two leaders would discuss the latest developments in
Sudan and the ties between the neighboring countries.
Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April when simmering tensions between the military, led by
Burhan, and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan
Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.
The conflict has reduced the capital to an urban battlefield, with the RSF controlling vast swaths of
the city. The military command, where Burhan has purportedly been stationed since April, has been
one of the epicenters of the conflict.
In his trip to Egypt, Burhan was accompanied by Acting Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq and Gen. Ahmed
Ibrahim Mufadel, head of the General Intelligence Authority, and other military officers.
Burhan managed last week to leave the military headquarters. He visited military facilities in
Khartoum’s sister city of Omdurman and elsewhere in the country. Burhan traveled to Egypt from
the coastal city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Despite months of fighting, neither side has managed to gain control of Khartoum or other key areas
in the country. Last week, large explosions and plumes of black smoke could be seen above key
areas of the capital, including near its airport.
Egypt has longstanding ties with the Sudanese army and its top generals. In July, el-Sissi hosted a
meeting of Sudan’s neighbors and announced a plan for a cease-fire. A series of fragile truces,
brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, have failed to hold.The conflict has turned Khartoum and
other urban areas into battlefields. Many residents live without water and electricity, and the
country’s health care system has nearly collapsed.
The sprawling region of Darfur saw some of the worst bouts of violence in the conflict, and the
fighting there has morphed into ethnic clashes with RSF and allied Arab militia targeting ethnic
African communities.
Clashes also intensified earlier this month in the provinces of South Kordofan and West Kordofan.
The fighting is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 people, according to the U.N. human rights
office, though activists and doctors on the ground say the death toll is likely far higher.
More than 4.6 million people have been displaced, according to the U.N. migration agency. Those
include over 3.6 million who fled to safer areas inside Sudan and more than 1 million others who
crossed into neighbouring countries.