Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday arrived in Khartoum, Sudan on a one-day official visit and was received at Khartoum International Airport by the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister will hold talks with the President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council at the riverside Republican Palace regarding ways to strengthen and upgrade bilateral relations between the two countries and ways to advance prospects for cooperation, in a way that achieves the interests of the two brotherly peoples,” according to an official statement.
Abiy Ahmed will also meet with several political forces to learn about developments in the current political situation in Sudan.
Sudan’s fragile democratic transition went askew when Gen Al Burhan seized power in a coup in October 2021, plunging the country into an economic and political crisis.
The generals and the FFC reached a preliminary deal on resolving Sudan’s political crisis last month, but they left several key issues unresolved pending further talks, which began earlier this month.
The December deal provided for the military to quit politics and for a civilian prime minister to lead the country for 24 months until elections are held.
Abiy is scheduled to meet leaders of the Forces for Freedom and Change as well as other political stakeholders during his visit to Khartoum, according to officials.
It was Abiy that led an African Union mediation in 2019 that produced a military-civilian administration in August 2019, four months after longtime dictator Omar Al Bashir was overthrown. That transitional administration was toppled by Gen Al Burhan in his 2021 coup.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister is accompanied by the Ethiopian Ministers of Defense, Peace, and Interior, the National Security Adviser, the Director of Ethiopian Intelligence, the Minister of the Government Liaison Office, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.