Abdel-Fattah Al Burhan Abdelrahman Al-Burhan, the President of the Transitional Government of Sudan, called for more multilateral action to find sustainable solutions to global challenges and to reduce terrible repercussions for people worldwide, particularly in countries affected by conflict and in the least developed countries.
On the recent political developments in Sudan, he reiterated his commitment to peaceful transition to establish real democracy that includes fair, free and transparent elections at the end of the transition period, in order to establish a civilian regime that represents all Sudanese people.
The Sudanese President went on to share that starting in July, his country’s military was asked to withdraw from negotiations meant to solve the ongoing political crisis after last year’s coup, allowing revolutionary political forces to form a civilian government. This would be a government which would be independent and implement the rest of the remaining requests in the transition period.
He restated Sudan’s commitment to cooperate with UNITAMS in line with the UN Charter and its mandate set forth by the Security Council and in line with the list of requests presented by Sudan to the UN to promote the transition. He added that cooperation will continue with UNISFA.
President Al-Burhan stated: “In order to promote national understanding we have provided all the necessary support to the AU-IGAD-UNITAMS Trilateral Mechanism, this mechanism has done a lot of work, but has yet to achieve what was required of it. This has made debates on national consensus more complicated.”
Supporting regional peace
He highlighted how signing the Juba Peace Agreement lessened conflict in Darfur and provided some stability and security to the region. In Darfur, rate of voluntary return of the displaced people has also increased. The Sudanese leader appealed to the international community for help and assistance in entitlements under the Juba Peace Agreement.
President Al-Burhan stressed how Sudan is striving to improve security, development and peace in the Africa region, with South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Chad among other countries. He added that Sudan was the coordinator alongside the African Union to reach a peace agreement in the Central African Republic. Sudan is also working with stakeholders to maintain security in Libya.
Commitment to the SDGs
“We are fighting against organized crime too,” he continued, and said “Sudan is sparing no efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals because we are convinced of the importance of the outcome document and sustainable development agenda for 2030.”
In this regard, the Sudanese official pointed to the adoption of the “strategic document for poverty reduction for the period of 2021 to 2023” by the transitional government.
External debt and support to refugees
Mr. Al-Burhan said that the external debt “is a stumbling block” for his country and limits its efforts to continue achieving economic and social development. This also hinders the implementation of the sustainable development goals.
He added that Sudan had qualified to benefit from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, appealing to “the international community and brotherly and friendly countries to fulfill their commitments they made in the Paris and Berlin meetings, noting that Sudan has completed all the legislation required to benefit from debt relief.”
Regarding the four million refugees in Sudan, Al-Burhan called for greater international support to address the situation of refugees and local communities hosting them.
He concluded by highlighting another priority of Sudan: the need to control the spread of small arms and light weapons.