Nearly five months on, the violence has spread from the capital city of Khartoum to the Darfur region, Kordofan, and Jazira state. 

A delegation from Sudan’s Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) is set to visit Qatar on Wednesday as part of a regional tour, an official statement confirmed, as warring sides fail to reach a truce to end the deadly conflict.

The political group announced the visit in a social media post and said it comes as part of its efforts to explore a solution to the war in Sudan, “address the catastrophic humanitarian situation” and “restore the civil democratic path”.

The tour also includes South Sudan and Kuwait.

“It is expected that the coming period will witness the completion of the foreign tours of a number of neighbouring and brotherly countries, as soon as their arrangements are completed, in order to end the war,” the statement added.

The announcement was made shortly after Sudan’s army chief Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan concluded his visit to Egypt, his first foreign trip since the war broke out in Khartoum in April.

Sudan’s deadliest conflict erupted following simmering tensions between the Sudanese army, led by Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Hemedti.

The ongoing fighting between the rivals has so far resulted in an estimated death toll of 4,000, though the actual figure is feared to be much higher. The war has also displaced 4.6 million people inside and outside of Sudan, per figures shared by the United Nations.

The fatal conflict has largely disrupted a 2019 power-sharing agreement between Sudanese parties, signed months after the overthrow of former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to form a Sovereign Council.

The agreement set late 2023 as the deadline for a vote to elect a civilian administration.

Peace efforts and failed ceasefires

In Egypt, Al-Burhan and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi reviewed the developments on the ground in Sudan and held talks on forming a pathway to ending the war.

A delegation from the FFC, which included its official spokesperson Yasser Arman, also headed to Egypt on Monday to attend a meeting with other political leaders, Al Sharq Al Awsat reported. 

Other attendees included Sudanese Congress Party President Omar Al-Dagir and Babiker Faisal, the Executive Office of the Unionist Alliance.

During the meeting, Al-Dagir warned that “prolonging the war’s duration may lead to the risk of it escalating into a civil war.”

Last month, Egypt held a summit that brought together Sudan’s neighbouring countries-Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Libya – where participating parties agreed on a new Egyptian-led initiative aimed at ending Sudan’s conflict.

Qatar at the time described the summit’s final communique as “an important step within the regional and international efforts to stop the fighting” in Sudan.

The most recent Egyptian initiative followed multiple mediation efforts led by Saudi Arabia and the United States, all of which failed to end the war. 

Sudan has witnessed at least 10 failed ceasefires since the conflict broke out.

Nearly five months on, the violence has spread from the capital city of Khartoum to the Darfur region, Kordofan, and Jazira state. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a damning report last month in which it called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate new war crimes in Darfur and the killing of “at least 28 ethnic Massalit”. 

The Darfur region faced a genocide in 2003, during which the RSF’s commander, Hemedti, led the Janjaweed militia. At least 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were displaced during the genocide.