Kenyan and Sudanese Leaders Agree to Speed up Peace Process

William Ruto, president of Kenya, and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, president of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan, agreed to work toward a framework for an all-inclusive dialogue to end a seven-month-old conflict.

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According to a joint statement issued in Nairobi, on Monday evening, the two leaders held bilateral talks in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on the recent security situation in Sudan and the region.

Ruto and al-Burhan reviewed the state of ongoing peace initiatives, including the Jeddah and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace processes.

"The two leaders underscored the urgent need to find a solution for the conflict in Sudan in the shortest time possible," the statement said.

Furthermore, the two leaders recognized the slow progress in Jeddah, a port city of Saudi Arabia, where the Sudanese warring parties have been meeting to end the conflict which has raged for seven months, and underscored the urgency to accelerate the process toward cessation of hostilities and humanitarian assistance.

The talks, which ended last week in Jeddah, failed to agree on a ceasefire, according to IGAD, which facilitated the talks alongside Saudi Arabia.

In addition, the two leaders also agreed to work toward the convening of an urgent IGAD summit to find ways to accelerate the Jeddah process toward the cessation of hostilities in Sudan.

"The summit will also agree on a framework for an all-inclusive Sudanese dialogue," the two leaders said.

Deadly clashes have been going on between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), rival factions of the military government of Sudan, since April 15.

The conflict has killed up to 9,000 people as of October, displacing more than 6 million others within and outside Sudan and leaving 25 million in need of aid, according to the United Nations.