The foreign minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, on Wednesday before embarking on an official visit to the East African countries of South Sudan, Djibouti, and Kenya, said that the countries of the region have a key role to play in international attempts at mediating the war in Sudan.
On the last leg of her trip, she will hold political talks in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, speak to German members of the UN mission UNMISS, and visit a UNHCR refugee settlement.
South Sudan has provided refuge to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Sudan and, given its status as a close neighbor and its history with the country, has offered to mediate in the conflict. As the second-largest donor, Germany is helping to provide the refugees in Sudan’s neighboring countries with what they need to survive. Yet international pressure to put an end to the fighting is needed if the suffering is finally to cease.
“The countries of the region as well as the regional organization IGAD and the African Union have a key role to play in international attempts at mediation,” she said in a brief statement before her departure. “With my dialogue partners in Djibouti, Kenya, and South Sudan, I want to explore ways to finally bring the generals Burhan and Hemedti to the negotiating table so that they do not continue to drag the people of Sudan into the abyss and destabilize the region.”
“To me, it is clear that we must increase the pressure on both sides – through sanctions, through accountability for their crimes against the civilian population, and by engaging with their supporters from abroad,” Minister Baerbock added.
She said that Sudan in 2019 was defined by hope and optimism after the fall of the war criminal al-Bashir and that Sudan in 2024 is defined by war and destruction.
“For more than nine months, two generals have been waging a ruthless power struggle at the expense of the civilian population. More than 12,000 deaths and around 7.5 million people displaced – that is the brutal result of this conflict. The images from Darfur in particular evoke grim recollections of the genocide that was committed there 20 years ago,” the minister stated. “The regional repercussions are enormous, too. Neighboring countries, many of which are desperately poor, have taken in 1.5 million refugees from Sudan in recent months. Germany is the second-largest donor helping to provide these people with what they need to survive.”
“The Sudan will only find lasting peace with a democratic civilian government and I will thus also be meeting with members of Sudanese civil society,” she stressed.
According to Baerbock, as bleak as the situation there might currently seem, the brave young people – women front and center – who took to the streets in 2019 for peaceful change and greater participation in society stand for a better future for the country.
“We owe it to them not to let this conflict become a forgotten crisis,” she said.
The minister said that in Djibouti, one topic of her meetings will be how to protect international shipping in the Red Sea from attacks by the Houthis in Yemen.
“Djibouti lies in direct proximity to Yemen, and the two countries have traditionally enjoyed close relations. Between them runs one of the central arteries of international trade, the Bab al-Mandab strait, just 27 kilometers wide,” she stated. “It is in our shared interest to guarantee the safety of shipping through what is a bottleneck for the global economy.”
In Kenya, the main focus will also be on efforts to bring about peace in the Sudan. Here, Foreign Minister Baerbock will meet representatives of Sudanese civil society living in exile as well as dialogue partners from the political sphere.