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Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan will pay a working visit to Türkiye on Thursday, Dec. 25, at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Türkiye’s Communications Directorate said.
In a statement shared on social media, Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran said talks during the visit would focus on bilateral relations, developments in Sudan, the humanitarian situation, and steps to ensure regional stability.
The visit comes as Türkiye has strongly condemned atrocities committed by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against civilians.
“We strongly condemn the atrocities committed by the RSF against civilians and call for the urgent access of humanitarian assistance to the relevant regions,” Türkiye’s U.N. envoy Ahmet Yildiz told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Sudan earlier this week.
Yildiz said Sudan has become the world’s “largest displacement crisis” and expressed Ankara’s deep concern over recent developments in Al-Fasher and the Kordofan region.
He also condemned the RSF’s Dec. 13 attack on a logistics base of the U.N. Interim Security Force for Abyei in Kadugli, South Kordofan, which killed six Bangladeshi peacekeepers and wounded eight others.
“Türkiye defines Sudan's unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence as one of the basic tenets of our principled approach to the region and Africa as a whole,” Yildiz said.
“It is only through legitimacy and dialogue that a sustainable solution to the conflict can be found,” he added, calling for an inclusive international peace process leading to a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive political transition and accountability.
Yildiz said Türkiye has remained actively engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, delivering nearly 10,000 tons of aid by sea, sending medical supplies to combat cholera and dispatching 30,000 tents to displaced civilians.
“The people of Sudan must be freed from the grip of violence and death,” he said.
Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the RSF following the collapse of a transition toward civilian rule.
On Oct. 26, RSF forces overran El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, after a 500-day siege, triggering mass displacement and leaving civilians trapped with limited access to food.
Most recently, the RSF claimed control of two additional areas in North Darfur. Fighters on dozens of combat vehicles stormed Abu Qamra, about 200 kilometers northwest of El-Fasher, local sources told Turkish news agency Anadolu. The area had previously been held by the Sudanese army and allied forces.
RSF forces also attacked Ambro town, roughly 300 kilometers northwest of El-Fasher, according to the same sources. The group said in a statement that it had “tightened control” over both areas, posting videos on social media that appeared to show its presence.
There was no immediate comment from the Sudanese army.
Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states in the Darfur region except for parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The Sudanese army holds most of the remaining 13 states in the north, south, east and center of the country, including the capital Khartoum.
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