CAIRO (AFP) -- The army-aligned government of war-devastated Sudan has protested to Britain over its planned hosting this month of a conference on the conflict, which Khartoum says it has been excluded from.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in February told Parliament he will host foreign ministers in London, around the second anniversary of Sudan’s war, “to foster international consensus on a path to ending the conflict.”
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef sent a letter to Lammy “in which he protested the organization by his country of a conference on Sudan without inviting the Sudanese government”.
Youssef denounced Britain for what he said was an attitude that put the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on equal footing with the Sudanese state, the Sudanese government said in a statement issued Sunday.
The war between Sudan’s army and the RSF has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises.
More than 12 million people have been uprooted, tens of thousands killed, and a UN-backed assessment declared famine in parts of the country.
Germany and the European Union are co-organizing the conference with Britain on April 15, the war’s second anniversary, France’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations Jay Dharmadhikari said last month.
The United Kingdom has sanctioned businesses linked to both the army and the RSF in Sudan’s war.
The RSF are rooted in Darfur and control much of its territory, as well as parts Sudan’s south.
The army reclaimed the capital Khartoum last month, and holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country essentially divided in two.
Youssef also criticized invitations to the conference for the United Arab Emirates, Chad and Kenya which he termed “stakeholders in the war”.
The International Court of Justice is on Thursday to hear arguments from Sudan and the UAE after Khartoum accused the Gulf state of complicity in genocide.
The UAE has repeatedly denied supporting Sudan’s paramilitaries in the war.