Zayed and Sudan’s Burhan speak in call mediated by # Ethiopia

Middle East Eye

Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Mohammed Bin Zayed spoke to each other on Thursday in a phone call mediated and arranged by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Multiple Sudanese and diplomatic sources told Middle East Eye that Abiy had mediated the phone call following his recent trip to Port Sudan to meet with Burhan and in the wake of a $817m bilateral currency swap agreement between the UAE Central Bank and the National Bank of Ethiopia.

It was the first conversation between the two leaders since June 2023, when the Sudanese army accused the UAE at the UN Security Council of providing weapons and support to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which the army has been at war with since 15 April last year.

“During the visit of Abiy Ahmed, he convinced Burhan to ease the tension with the UAE, telling him that this was also the desire of the Emirati leadership, including the head of state Mohammed bin Zayed,” the source close to the army said.