South Sudan’s government is very interested in bringing peace among the warring parties in neighboring Sudan, according to South Sudan’s Cabinet minister.
Martin Elia Lomuro said it was in the interests of South Sudan to find a solution to the crisis in Sudan.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir “is the only person who has intimacy and knowledge about Sudan and can find a solution to the Sudanese crisis,” Lomuro said on Monday after Kiir met with visiting Sudanese leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who arrived in the capital Juba on Monday.
He added that Kiir is well placed to meditate on the problems in Sudan, and that he has a solution in his hands to resolve the conflict.
After the meeting, Sudan’s acting Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq told reporters: “We in Sudan feel that South Sudan is the best country to meditate the conflict in Sudan, because we have been one country for so long and we know each other, we know the problems and we know our needs”.
South Sudan was part of Sudan until 2011, when it gained independence.
This is Burhan’s second trip outside Sudan since the conflict erupted in Khartoum this April, after visiting Egypt last week, where he held talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the coastal city of el-Alamein.
Burhan is accompanied by al-Sadiq and Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim Mufadel, head of the General Intelligence Authority, and other senior military officers.
Fighting broke out in April between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support forces and has since then exploded into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere.
More than 3,000 civilians have been killed and thousands injured since the outbreak of violence in Sudan in April, according to local medics.
Several cease-fire agreements brokered by Saudi and US mediators between the warring rivals failed to end violence in the country.
According to UN estimates, nearly 4.8 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Sudan.