During her recent travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in connection with the African Union Summit, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, accompanied by USAID Assistant Administrator for Africa Monde Muyangwa, Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer and Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey, held a series of meetings focused on addressing Sudan’s continuing conflict and humanitarian crisis. Their engagements on Sudan focused on stopping the conflict, facilitating humanitarian assistance, and uplifting pro-democracy civilians working to advocate for the Sudanese people and prepare for post-conflict governance. Throughout the delegation’s meetings, Assistant Secretary Phee underscored that the United States has long stood with the Sudanese people and against military governance, and that ending the Sudan conflict and restoring civilian governance are high priorities for the United States.
In a meeting with women civil society representatives from different groups and regions across Sudan, Assistant Secretary Phee stressed the importance of Sudanese women’s participation in political processes and a post-conflict civilian government. She also discussed the severe impact that the fighting has had on women and girls, who have increasingly been targets for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and ways to ensure that perpetrators of CRSV and other atrocities are held accountable.
Assistant Secretary Phee also had the opportunity to speak with leaders of grassroots organizations and Resistance Committee members. She commended these individuals’ courageous efforts to rally support for and provide support to those most affected by the conflict, including by expanding international community engagement with local actors working to provide humanitarian assistance. They discussed efforts to press Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leaders to end the fighting and facilitate humanitarian access to address the increasingly dire conditions on the ground.
Assistant Secretary Phee also met with members of the Taqaddum pro-democracy front and encouraged its further diversification – focusing on women, youth, civil society and grassroots organizations, and representatives of historically marginalized communities – to enable Sudanese civilians to speak with a more unified voice in calling for facilitation of humanitarian assistance, ending the fighting, and returning governance to civilians after the conflict.
Beyond her extensive engagements with Sudanese civilians, Assistant Secretary Phee also consulted in Addis Ababa with key stakeholders on multilateral efforts to end the conflict, facilitate humanitarian assistance, and support Sudanese civilians. Those included a meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, with whom she discussed the need for resumed ceasefire talks and coordination of regional initiatives, and discussions with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Kenya’s President William Ruto, Dibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu and the Algeria Foreign Ministry’s Director General for African Affairs, Selma Haddadi. In addition, SEHOA Hammer had the opportunity to exchange views with counterparts from the European Union, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom and, along with Ambassador Godfrey, was introduced to the African Union’s recently established High Level Panel on Sudan led by Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas.