KAMPALA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Wednesday said the upcoming Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit scheduled to discuss the Sudan crisis and the Ethiopia-Somalia sea access issue will go ahead Thursday despite protests.

Okello Oryem, Uganda's minister of State for International Affairs, told reporters here that regional leaders will meet to discuss ways of resolving the Sudan crisis despite the Sudan government saying it will not attend the meeting.

Sudan on Jan. 13 objected to attending the summit, saying there is no need to hold a new summit to discuss Sudan's issue before the implementation of the outcomes of the previous summit.

Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council in a statement said what was happening in Sudan is an internal affair.

Sudan on Tuesday froze dealing with IGAD regarding resolving the current crisis, arguing that it was not consulted before putting the matter on the agenda of the Kampala summit of IGAD.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry in a statement protested IGAD's invitation to the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, to attend the summit, calling it "a dangerous precedent in the history of the IGAD and regional and international organizations."

The RSF is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces in clashes since April 15, 2023. More than 12,000 people have been killed in the fighting, according to a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in early December last year.

The IGAD has been intensifying pressure on the Sudanese warring parties to sign a truce agreement to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the conflict-affected population.

Minister Oryem also said the leaders will discuss the protest by Somalia after Ethiopia reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Somaliland, a self-declared region of Somalia, to allow Ethiopia access to the Red Sea in return for its recognition of Somaliland as an independent state. Somalia accused Ethiopia of undermining its territorial integrity. Enditem

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