Cairo, July 8 (Agency) Delegations of various Sudanese political parties and civil groups met here in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to find a political solution to the Sudan crisis. Representatives from regional and international organisations also attended the conference, Egyptian Minister of Foreign, Emigration and Expatriates’ Affairs Badr Abdelatty said in a statement upon opening the conference. “Any real political solution to the crisis in Sudan must be based on a purely Sudanese vision emanating from the Sudanese themselves,” he said. The statement did not elaborate on which Sudanese parties or groups participated, but Abdalla Hamdok, former Sudanese prime minister and now head of the Coordination of Civil and Democratic Forces, a Sudanese antiwar coalition involved in peace talks, attended the conference. Abdelatty stressed that all parties in Sudan should be included in the peace-seeking process under the principles of respecting Sudan’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, as well as the rules of non-interference in its internal affairs.
He added that the conference is a continuation of Egypt’s efforts to stop the war in Sudan in cooperation with regional and international partners, including Sudan’s neighboring countries, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Arab League.Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since mid-April 2023. The conflict had claimed at least 16,650 lives by May 10, 2024, according to a watchdog update cited by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in late June. The UN International Organisation for Migration estimated early last month that about 7.3 million people in Sudan had been internally displaced amid the conflict. In addition, many Sudanese people crossed borders into neighboring countries to seek refuge. According to official Egyptian figures released in March, about 500,000 Sudanese had fled to Egypt since the beginning of the war.