KHARTOUM — Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris said Sunday that a Sudanese-led national dialogue will begin “soon,” aimed at paving the way for national reconciliation, constitutional reconstruction and ultimately 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 Algeria’s Mohamed Khaled.The process 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,” Idris said, according to the official SUNA news agency.Idris also addressed the continuing war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), saying the Sudanese army was advancing in the Kordofan region and would later move toward Darfur “until the entire country is liberated.”He outlined “red lines” for the government, including rejecting any attempt to place the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF on equal footing and opposing foreign interference in Sudan’s internal affairs.“The Sudanese alone determine how their country’s affairs are managed,” Idris 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. The proposal 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 had received responses from regional and international organizations as well as global religious bodies. He expressed hope 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 reiterated the AU Peace and Security Council’s commitment to the principles of sovereignty, territorial unity and non-interference in the internal affairs of member states.The announcement follows a decision Friday by Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Chairman Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan to provide 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.
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