Cairo – Falcon of the Desert

On Monday, the head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, discussed bilateral relations and regional issues of common interest with the presidents of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki.

The Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) said that Burhan met separately with both Mahmoud and Afwerki on the sidelines of the eighth African Union mid-year coordination summit in El Alamein, northern Egypt.

She added that the two meetings addressed bilateral relations and regional issues of common interest, without providing further details.

The meetings come a day after a four-way consultative summit hosted by the city of El Alamein on Sunday, which brought together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Sudanese Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, and his Somali counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

In a joint declaration following the summit, the four countries affirmed their support for the unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national institutions of Sudan, and rejected interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region.

It also affirmed its rejection of harming the two Nile River downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, according to the joint declaration conveyed by the Egyptian Presidency.

Burhan arrived in El Alamein at the invitation of Sisi to participate in the consultative summit, which discussed regional issues and developments of common interest, in addition to strengthening consultation and coordination between the leaders of the four countries in support of peace, stability, development and regional integration efforts.

The summit came amid escalating diplomatic tensions in the Horn of Africa, after Ethiopia and Eritrea severed diplomatic ties, and Addis Ababa and Cairo exchanged diplomatic measures following Ethiopian accusations that Eritrea and Egypt were interfering in its affairs, which both countries denied.