(Khartoum) The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov met Thursday in Khartoum with senior Sudanese politicians, whom he said supported the call to lift the UN sanctions hitting this country mired in a deep economic and political crisis.
The Russian foreign minister’s two-day visit is part of Moscow’s drive to bolster its influence in Africa as Westerners rally to isolate the country since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We support Sudan’s efforts to end the sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations Security Council,” he told reporters in Khartoum.
Sudan is under a series of sanctions and an arms embargo, imposed in 2005 by the UN during the bloody conflict in Darfur, in the west of the country.
The economy of this large East African country, one of the poorest in the world, has been battered by years of US economic sanctions under Omar al-Bashir.
The post-Bashir democratic transition offered hope: in 2020, Washington removed Sudan from its list of countries supporting terrorism and international aid returned – two billion dollars a year.
But the coup led on October 25, 2021 by the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah el-Burhane, interrupted this transition and the granting of this aid, which will only resume if civilians regain power, notify donors.
“We also discussed our economic cooperation and investments” linking the two countries, said Mr. Lavrov, praising Khartoum’s efforts “to attract Russian investments”.
The Russian minister met in Khartoum with General Burhane, his deputy General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, boss of the very feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the acting Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq.
Mr. Lavrov’s arrival in Khartoum late Wednesday marks the last leg of an African diplomatic tour, after Mali and Mauritania. Last month, the Russian minister visited Eritrea, Angola, Eswatini and South Africa.
His presence in Khartoum coincides with that of emissaries from the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, who came to “support” the framework agreement signed in December between Sudanese civilians and soldiers, following comments on Twitter by US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey.