By Enyichukwu Enemanna
After over two years into the country’s brutal war which has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on Wednesday appointed career diplomat Ambassador Dafallah al-Haj Ali as the new acting prime minister.
Ali, a veteran envoy who once served as Sudan’s representative to the United Nations under longtime military ruler Omar al-Bashir, was most recently the country’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom was the destination of Burhan’s first foreign trip after the army regained control of the capital, Khartoum, from the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.
Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has pitted Burhan’s forces against those loyal to his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
According to reports, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, creating what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Ali replaces Osman Hussein, a largely symbolic prime minister installed by Burhan following a 2021 military coup that ousted civilian premier Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government.
Burhan also named Omar Sediq, another seasoned diplomat involved in negotiations between the army and the RSF in Jeddah last year as acting foreign minister.
Burhan had earlier stated that he would form a technocratic wartime government to help “complete what remains of our military objectives, which is liberating Sudan from these rebels”.
Earlier this month, the RSF announced it would form its own rival government, just weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.
The development has heightened international concerns that Sudan could be permanently divided between the two factions, both of which have been accused of war crimes during the ongoing conflict.
