Sudan’s RSF leader visits Ethiopia in first public wartime tour

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The leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces visited Ethiopia yesterday where he said he discussed the need for a swift end to the war between the RSF and the Sudanese army, during the second leg of a rare publicly-announced foreign tour.

RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose whereabouts since the war began in mid-April were previously unknown, landed in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa after meeting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his country home on Wednesday.

Diplomatic efforts, including Saudi and United States-led talks in Jeddah, have made little visible progress toward halting the conflict in Sudan. The RSF has recently made military gains, taking control of Wad Madani, one of Sudan’s major cities, and consolidating its grip on the western region of Darfur.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he had received Dagalo and his delegation “for a discussion on securing peace and stability in the Sudan”, posting pictures of them seated around a restaurant table.

Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen earlier met Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, at Ethiopia’s Bole International Airport. Hemedti posted pictures of his arrival and a meeting with Demeke on social media platform X.

“We discussed the need to bring a swift end to this war, the historical crisis in Sudan, and how to best alleviate the hardships of the Sudanese people,” Hemedti said.

Posts by Hemedti and Ethiopia’s foreign ministry showed him disembarking from an aircraft belonging to Royal Jet, a United Arab Emirates airline, which flight records show had flown from Abu Dhabi to Uganda’s Entebbe airport on Wednesday morning.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify if Dagalo had been on the aircraft’s previous flight.