The Republic of Sudan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Office of the Spokesperson and Media Directorate
Press Statement
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces the invitation extended by the IGAD Secretariat to the Leader of the
Janjaweed militia to attend the 42 Extraordinary Session of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government. This invitation constitutes a flagrant violation of the Agreement establishing IGAD and its rules of procedures as well as the agreed principles of intergovernmental organizations. It moreover represents an extreme insult to the victims of genocide, ethnic cleansing, sexual violence and other atrocities perpetrated by the Janjaweed gangs in different parts of the country.
It is needless to state that IGAD is a regional organization of sovereign governments and is meant to promote regional peace, security and integration among member states. As such IGAD has no place for terrorist and criminal groups in its official meetings.
However, not only has IGAD exercised a deafening silence towards the atrocities of the terrorist militia, which were condemned by several international organizations such as the United Nations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, the League of Arab States, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, as well as a number of countries, like the United States . The organization, unfortunately, went a bit further to merit the Militia a pseudo legitimacy by inviting it for a meeting which only heads of state and government of the member states would attend.
This shameful precedent, which reflects disrespect to IGAD legal frameworks and constitutes a threat to the sovereignty of the member states, does not only destroy the credibility of IGAD as a regional organization,but it is also a sort of sponsorship by IGAD of terrorism, genocide and ethnic cleansing. It would furthermore embolden the groups that commit these atrocities which the region is suffering from.
Therefore, in the light of IGAD’s insistence on repudiating its governing order and the requirements of international law, and given its susceptibility to be a tool for conspiring against Sudan and its people, the Government of Sudan will keep its options towards the engagement with IGAD open.