Türkiye is prepared to help facilitate peace in Sudan as a civil war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has ravaged the country for 17 months running.
“We are ready to do our duty to ensure the crisis in Sudan ends in a framework the people and the administration can agree on,” Turkish Ambassador to Khartoum Fatih Yıldız told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday.
Rival generals have been locked in a brutal power struggle in Sudan since 2023. The bloody fighting has displaced more than 10 million people and killed at least 19,000 people. Aid agencies this week warned Sudan is experiencing a starvation crisis of historic proportions and condemned the “deafening” silence of the international community.
“Türkiye is determined to maintain its presence in Sudan on the level of ambassadorship,” said Yıldız, who has recently taken up the post in Khartoum.
Pointing out a decades-long history of internal conflicts in Sudan, he lamented that it was “unfair” to the people of Sudan that such violent conflicts continued.
“Türkiye believes this unfairness must end. Our presence in Port Sudan is the most tangible sign of our approach to the Sudanese government and determination to stand by Sudanese people in their hardest hour,” Yıldız said.
Sudan’s wartime suffering has worsened with floodwaters from heavy rains that started surging earlier in August, with dozens of people missing, bringing down bridges and threatening the freshwater supply for Port Sudan, the country’s de facto capital.
As recently as in July, Türkiye has regularly sent help to the flood-hit region, and Yıldız said coordination was underway to bring in a new batch of humanitarian aid.
The ambassador assured Türkiye-Sudan relations were maintained without being impacted by the civil war, which he said was owed to the “strong bond between the two people.”
He also revealed plans to connect Port Sudan with a port city in Türkiye to increase Port Sudan’s global profile.
