El Burhan meets Saudi crown prince to ‘restore Sudan stability’ 

Head of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Monday, as regional efforts intensify to halt Sudan’s war.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, the talks at Al Yamamah Palace focused on developments in Sudan, their repercussions, and ways to restore security and stability. Senior Saudi officials, including Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, attended the meeting.

El Burhan arrived in Riyadh earlier on Monday at the invitation of the crown prince and was received at King Khalid International Airport by Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, deputy governor of the Riyadh region. 

The visit comes amid heightened regional diplomacy on Sudan, including a phone call on Monday between the Saudi and Egyptian ministers to discuss the crisis.

Earlier reporting by Radio Dabanga last month covered El Burhan’s praise for the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, describing him as “the voice of truth and the voice of the region”.

He said Sudanese affected by the war “look with satisfaction and appreciation at the efforts of the Saudi crown prince”, adding that Saudi mediation offers “an opportunity to spare the country destruction”. These comments came following US President Donald Trump’s pledge that he had begun working to end the war after the crown prince urged him to intervene.

Sudanese civil society groups have called on Riyadh to take decisive action. The Sudanese Group for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms and the Darfur Lawyers Authority submitted a joint memorandum to the Saudi crown prince, urging an urgent intervention to stop the war and the reactivation of the Jeddah platform as the main framework for peace talks.

The joint memorandum published yesterday, praised Saudi-US-sponsored talks launched in Jeddah in May 2023, which led to commitments to protect civilians and a short-lived humanitarian truce. The groups said ending the war has become an urgent humanitarian and national necessity.

They called for an immediate, comprehensive ceasefire, an end to air strikes and indiscriminate shelling in cities, the withdrawal of fighters from residential areas, and the establishment of a joint regional and international mechanism to monitor any truce.

The memorandum also urged a clear civilian-led political process after the war, including agreement on a single political reference, the formation of a unified civilian delegation, accountability for crimes, and security sector reform.