German FM to visit South Sudan, Kenya over Sudan conflict

January 23, 2024 (NAIROBI) – Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will on Wednesday visit to East Africa, where she is expected to push for sanctions and accountability to force warring parties in Sudan to end the war.

She is expected to visit South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti during the three-day tour.

“We must increase the pressure on both sides – through sanctions, by holding them accountable for their crimes against the civilian population and by influencing their supporters from abroad,” Baerbok said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The war between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started on mid-April 2023. Since then, however, there has been no public transport, electricity is sporadic and water is becoming scarce.

More than 7.3 million people have reportedly fled their homes, with children representing about half of the people displaced in Sudan, aid agencies reported.

“Together with my partners in Djibouti, Kenya and South Sudan, I will explore possibilities to bring generals Burhan and Hemeti finally to the negotiating table, so that they don’t drag the people in Sudan deeper into the abyss and destabilize the region any further,” Baerbock was quoted in statement issued Wednesday.

She added, “For me it is clear that we must raise the pressure on both sides — through sanctions, by holding them accountable for their violations against the civil population and by influencing their supporters abroad.”

Previous mediation efforts to end the crisis, including a push for a ceasefire, failed.

During the visit, Baerbock will also hold meetings with Sudan’s civil society actors.

“Sudan will only find long-term peace with a civil democratic government,” she stated, further stressing that the conflict should not become a “forgotten crisis”.

Meanwhile, both sides have been accused of war crimes, including the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, torture and arbitrary detention of civilians.

Fighting has been concentrated around Sudan’s capital, Khartoum and the Darfur region. As of 21 January 2024, at least 13,000-15,000 people had reportedly been killed and 33,000 others were injured

(ST)