The United States is withholding an entry visa for Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan days before he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly, amid a dispute over a US-backed ceasefire proposal, according to diplomatic sources and a letter sent to the UN.
The visa appears to have become tied to demands that Burhan accept a 90-day ceasefire proposed by US Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos, Reuters reported, citing a Sudanese diplomatic source and a Western analyst familiar with contacts between US and Sudanese officials.
Neither the US State Department nor Sudanese authorities immediately commented on the reported conditions.
Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council and commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Thursday.
Sudan’s UN ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith, has asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to intervene with Washington, warning that failure to issue the visa would prevent Sudan’s representative from participating in person.
In a letter dated September 21, Al-Harith said continued withholding of the visa would effectively prevent the head of a UN member state from taking part in the General Assembly.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned” that a visa had reportedly not yet been issued and that the UN Secretariat had raised the issue directly with US authorities.
Ceasefire dispute
The dispute comes after the Sudanese army raised objections to the 90-day ceasefire proposal advanced by Boulos earlier this year.
Washington has been seeking to halt Sudan’s war through the Quad mechanism involving the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Burhan has publicly rejected what he describes as externally imposed solutions to the conflict.
Writing in Foreign Policy on Monday, he argued that previous ceasefires had failed because they were designed without sufficient Sudanese involvement and claimed pauses in fighting had allowed the Rapid Support Forces and its supporters to regroup.
The visa row represents a further deterioration in relations between Washington and Sudan’s army leadership, already strained over US-backed efforts to expand the UN arms embargo currently covering Darfur to the whole of Sudan.
Army-aligned officials and supporters have opposed such a move, arguing that a nationwide embargo would disproportionately restrict the Sudanese army.
UN intervention sought
As host of UN headquarters in New York, the United States is generally required under its headquarters agreement with the United Nations to facilitate access for representatives of member states, although Washington has denied visas to some foreign officials in previous cases.
Burhan has represented Sudan at previous UN General Assembly sessions since the October 2021 military takeover that removed the civilian-led transitional government.
He has been Sudan’s de facto leader since 2019 and later led the 2021 coup alongside RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.
The alliance collapsed into war in April 2023.
The conflict has since developed into competing centres of power, with the army-led authorities operating from areas under their control while the RSF and allied groups have established a rival administration.
Former civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok is also in New York during this year’s General Assembly alongside members of his anti-war civilian coalition.
The UN General Assembly’s annual high-level debate began on September 22 and runs through September 28 at UN headquarters in New York.
