Sudanese dialogue to begin ‘soon’ to pave way for comprehensive reconciliation, elections, prime minister says

Adel Abdelrheem and Rania Abushamala

Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris said Sunday that a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue will begin “soon” to pave the way for national recovery, comprehensive reconciliation and free elections.

The dialogue will be “owned by all the people of Sudan,” Idris said during a meeting in Khartoum with a delegation from the African Union Peace and Security Council, led by Mohamed Khaled of Algeria.

The planned dialogue will lead to “comprehensive national recovery, full national reconciliation and integrated constitutional reconstruction” before culminating “in free and fair elections in which the Sudanese people will choose the country’s new leadership,” he added in his statements carried by the official news agency SUNA.

Idris said the Sudanese army was advancing on the ground in the Kordofan region and would later head toward Darfur “until the entire country is liberated.”

There are “red lines that cannot be crossed,” including “not placing the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces militia on an equal footing,” as well as rejecting foreign interference in Sudanese affairs, the premier said.

“The Sudanese alone determine how their country’s affairs are managed,” he said, adding that the African Union’s engagement with Sudan should be based on “mutual respect” among member states.

The prime minister also presented a Sudanese government peace initiative submitted to the UN Security Council in December 2025, which calls for the RSF to withdraw from areas under its control and enter integration and demobilization procedures aimed at ending the war.

Idris said the initiative has received responses from regional and international organizations and global religious bodies, expressing hopes that the African Union would support efforts to designate the RSF a “terrorist organization.”

Khaled, for his part, affirmed the African Union’s solidarity with Sudan and its people, according to SUNA.

He also stressed the council’s adherence to the AU’s principles of respecting the sovereignty and unity of states and rejecting interference in their internal affairs.

On Friday, Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan approved the provision of logistical support and legal, political and security guarantees for an inclusive Sudanese dialogue led by an independent national mechanism.

​​​​​​​Sudan has been engulfed in war since April 2023 between the army and the RSF over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the regular military. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced around 13 million, according to UN estimates.