Mohamed Hassan al-Taishi has written to the World Food Programme's new executive director asking for direct coordination on aid to areas under Tasis administration. Separately, the Tasis government's UN representative said army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had no mandate to offer Russia Sudan's minerals and a Red Sea free zone.
Mohamed Hassan al-Taishi, prime minister of the Tasis-led Government of Peace and Unity, has written to Luke J. Lindberg, the new executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), to congratulate him and to call for direct cooperation, The Sudan Times, Sudana and Blue News reported on 4 November.
According to these reports, al-Taishi urged the WFP to work more closely with his administration to speed up deliveries of food and other supplies, particularly to areas it runs. He said emergency relief should go hand in hand with preventive measures against worsening food and water insecurity. He offered to facilitate humanitarian operations "without discrimination or political conditions" and asked for an early meeting with the agency's new leadership.
Lindberg, a former senior official at the US Department of Agriculture, took office on 26 October, The Sudan Times said. He succeeds Cindy McCain, who stepped down in May, and Carl Skau, who served as acting head. The UN's top official in Sudan, Denise Brown, told UN News this week that the WFP had been forced to cut the number of people it helps and to reduce rations, Darfur24 reported.
"Sudan belongs to its people"
In a separate statement reported by Sudan Mix on 4 November, the government's permanent representative to the UN, Al-Gouni Mustafa Abubakr al-Sharif, questioned Burhan's authority to make "strategic offers" to Moscow on behalf of the Sudanese people. On 30 October in the Kremlin, Burhan proposed a free economic zone on the Red Sea coast to host Russian fuel and wheat storage. "We have specific deposits that we are prepared to offer for Russian investment, including deposits of copper, gold and other metals," he said, as reported by Radio Tamazuj.
Al-Sharif said Burhan had no popular mandate and no mandate from an elected parliament to negotiate over the country's sovereign assets. He said Burhan's position as chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council gave him no democratic legitimacy to conclude long-term agreements. He said it was contradictory for Burhan to reject international engagement with the Tasis government while expanding cooperation with Russia. The statement also raised concern about airstrikes on Sudanese miners near the Egyptian border in June and October 2026, saying the results of investigations into them had not been made public.
The statement said the Tasis government welcomes international investment, including from Russia, provided it respects Sudan's sovereignty and supports peace and reconstruction. It said mineral resources, ports and strategic corridors belong to the Sudanese people and not to military leaders. "Sudan belongs to its people, not to al-Burhan, and certainly not to any foreign power," al-Sharif said (CERHA translation from Arabic). CERHA found no response from Port Sudan. The army-aligned government does not recognise the Tasis administration and has previously dismissed its appointment of a UN representative.
Image: Sacks of food aid from USAID and the UN World Food Programme in Ain Siro, North Darfur, 2009. Sudan Envoy (US Special Envoy to Sudan), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.