Nairobi News

Kenya has responded to Sudan’s rejection of President William Ruto as head of the peace initiative for the resolution to the Sudan conflict.

Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Dr Abraham Korir Singoei, has said Sudan should go through the same channel that appointed President Ruto to the role, in case it needs to be reversed.

This after Sudan to reject the appointment of President Ruto to head the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) mediation team. Igad made the appointment at its recent summit.

But according to Dr Singoei, Sudan has not issued any official communication on the same, other than the statement issued by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry to the media. Dr Singoei said the Igad summit that appointed President Ruto to lead the peace mission team is the same body that would remove him, if need be.

Also read: Stop the nonsense! How Ruto’s threats to Sudan Generals cost him diplomacy role

“There is no official communication on this yet. But both the inclusion of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali in the troika mandated to seek peace in the Sudanese crisis and the appointment of William Ruto to lead the quartet were decided by the Igad summit and can only be removed by the summit,” Dr Singoei said.

In its protest statement issued on Tuesday, the Sudanese government said South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir should be reinstated to lead the mission.

“These paragraphs relate to changing the presidency of the Igad Committee, as the delegation demanded that the chairman be retained as Salva Kiir Mayardit to chair the committee and demanded the deletion of any reference to the subject of mediation,” the statement from Sudanese Foreign Ministry reads in part.

Also read: Sudan rejects Ruto as head of IGAD mediation team

The Sudan conflict erupted over power struggles between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudan Armed Forces and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces following the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, the dictator who ruled Sudan for years. More than 1,200 deaths have been reported with 800,000 people internally displaced.

The Igad Summit, in its move to end the crisis in Sudan, delegated duties to Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti to lead the talks.

President Ruto has been leading calls for an end to the conflict in Sudan. The Kenyan Head of State is even on record for saying dictators do not have a place in the continent.

Meanwhile, thousands of Sudanese have fled the country to seek refuge in neighbouring countries since the conflict erupted, even with continued calls for ceasefire by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN).

Also read: Ruto warns warring Sudan factions