Has the African Union Forged an Independent Track for Sudanese Dialogue?

Addis Ababa – Sudanhorizon
A limited-circulation report published by Africa Intelligence has described the “unilateral step” recently taken by the African Union Commission regarding the Sudanese dialogue — through expanding the list of invitees — as having unsettled the “Quintet”. According to the report, African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has thereby distanced the organisation from the mediation group’s framework and brought it closer to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s position. The report further argues that the African Union’s “unilateral initiative” threatens negotiations under the auspices of the international Quintet, which have been ongoing for several months.
The report’s author explained that, in July, the African organisation invited an additional 32 Sudanese figures to the Addis Ababa talks without the “Quintet’s” approval. These names were added to the original list of around 30 participants for this round of talks, which had been scheduled for late July before being postponed until September.
The revised line-up includes several figures close to the Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, including representatives of the Sufi establishment, senior figures from the civilian administration, as well as internally displaced people and refugees. The report considers that “this expansion runs counter to the structure initially favoured by the Quintet”: a small committee comprising Sudan’s principal political forces, including Sumoud, led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok; Tasis, the civilian alliance aligned with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF); the Democratic Bloc; the National Forces Coordination, led by Mohamed Sayed Ahmed, known as “Al-Jakoumi”; and the Nairobi Group, which includes the Ba’ath Party and Yasir Arman, a leading figure in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North, in addition to groups representing women and young people.
According to the report, the leak of the expanded list of participants shortly before the talks immediately provoked anger within the Sumoud alliance, which announced its boycott of the talks, considering the move an excessive bias in favour of the army.
It added that the African Union’s parallel invitation raised concerns among these political forces that they might be compelled to deal with new actors in future negotiations. As early as November 2025, the 30 Sudanese political figures in the small committee had submitted a proposal for a preparatory committee to the Quintet in Addis Ababa. The proposal was resubmitted in February 2026 on the sidelines of the African Union Summit.
The proposed group was expected to split into subcommittees to prepare the agenda and finalise the list of participants. The small body, comprising the heads of delegations representing the various political forces, would then be responsible for resolving any disputes arising within those subcommittees.
Africa Intelligence viewed the African Union’s submission of an additional list as part of an increasingly evident rapprochement between the African organisation and the Sudanese authorities. This followed the reopening of the AU liaison office in Khartoum — announced by the Commission Chairperson, Djiboutian national Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, in response to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s appeal to the international community — as well as a visit by an African Union delegation in mid-August, which was received by the Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces and Prime Minister Kamil Idris.
The report went further, arguing that disagreements over the methodology of the dialogue had also begun to emerge within the Quintet itself. Behind the scenes, the three principal political forces — the Democratic Bloc, Sumoud and Tasis — accuse the European Union, the main financial backer of the mediation process, of seeking to control its agenda, timetable and composition, thereby diverting it from its core mission of bringing the political blocs together around a common roadmap.
For several leaders within the Sumoud alliance, postponing the talks until September created the opening through which the African Union moved.
The report concluded by saying that, with one month remaining before the negotiations — which are increasingly expected to take the form of separate talks once again rather than a unified process — political actors must now adjust to the possibility of dozens of new participants taking their seats at the dialogue table, even as the final composition of the delegations remains under discussion within the Quintet.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=17488