Alwaght- Sudan is considering withdrawal of its troops from Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen, according to the African country’s Minister of Defense Ali Salem.
Addressing parliament Wednesday, Salem said the government was assessing the “negatives and positives of participation” and promised to come to a decision that will most benefit the country and its stability.
Sudan has at least 3,000 ground troops and several fighter jets fighting in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led aggression. Hundreds of Sudanese soldiers have been killed on key coastal battlefronts, local and Yemeni media have reported, while Khartoum is struggling with a severe hard-currency shortage.
The Defense Minister said the armed forces command was preparing a study on Sudan’s role in the coalition and would complete it soon.
President Omar Al Bashir has come under pressure from members of the Sudanese parliament to withdraw forces fighting in the country. In a statement issued over the weekend, an alliance of independent MPs called the presence of armed forces in Sudan “unconstitutional."
Sudanese parliamentarian Hassan Othman Rizq, who has spearheaded a campaign for withdrawing forces from Yemen, told Reuters the decision to dispatch troops there was illegal because lawmakers had not approved it.
“Sudanese troops are stationed on hot battlefronts, and thus they are sustaining higher losses,” Rizq said.
“Sudan had not benefited economically from the participation, unlike (other) countries that did not send troops but are getting financial support,” he added.
The aggression on Yemen under the leadership of Saudi Arabia also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan. Qatar withdrew from the coalition in June amid a diplomatic rift with Riyadh, Manama, and Abu Dhabi.
The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the Saudi-led war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured since the start of the illegal aggression in March 2015.
The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there was a growing risk of famine and cholera there.
