CAIRO: Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris arrived in Cairo on Thursday morning for his first foreign visit since assuming office in May, as his country’s army remains gripped by a brutal war with paramilitaries.

Idris, a career diplomat and former UN official, held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency. During the meeting, Sisi reaffirmed “Egypt’s steadfast position supporting the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sudan”, the statement said.

Egypt has backed Sudan’s military leadership since war erupted in April 2023, when a tenuous alliance between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) collapsed.

The RSF swiftly seized large parts of Khartoum, but after months of urban warfare, the army recaptured the capital in March this year. Sudan is now effectively split, with the army in control of the north, east and centre, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

Idris also met with his Egyptian counterpart Moustafa Madbouly on Thursday. At a press conference after the meeting, the Sudanese prime minister said there is “consensus” between Egypt and Sudan on key regional and international issues.

Sudan’s conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have so far yielded little.

A recent ministerial meeting in Washington — involving the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — stalled after Cairo and Abu Dhabi disagreed on the role the warring parties would play in a potential peace process, two diplomatic sources said.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025