On Monday, the government of Sudan announced that it will not participate in a regional meeting aimed at resolving the problem in the war-torn nation. The government of Sudan accused Kenya, which was in charge of chairing the discussions, of favoring competing groups.

Since the battle between Sudan’s competing generals broke out in the middle of April, an estimated three thousand thousand people have been killed, and almost three million people have been forced to escape their homes.

An invitation to a meeting between the adversaries, Sudan’s army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was extended by the east African regional bloc IGAD on Monday. The meeting was scheduled to take place in the capital of Ethiopia.

Neither party was present in person at the discussions that took place in Addis Ababa; however, the RSF did send a representative to the “quartet” meeting that was led by Kenya, South Sudan, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sudan announced on Monday that the country’s delegation would not take part in the negotiations unless and until its demand to have Kenya removed as the discussions’ chair was satisfied.

According to the statement, the ministry had requested that “Kenyan President William Ruto (be) replaced… in particular because of his partiality.”

Earlier, Sudan has accused Nairobi of “adopting the positions of the RSF militia, sheltering its people, and offering them various forms of support.”

In a communique that was issued following the meeting on Monday, the quartet stated that it would ask the African Union to investigate the possibility of deploying the East Africa Standby Force in Sudan “for the protection of civilians and… humanitarian access.” This particular force is typically charged with election observer missions.