Sudan’s army chief has welcomed a Turkish offer to resolve the brutal 20-month conflict between his forces and their paramilitary rivals, the Sudanese foreign minister said.

In early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a phone call with Sudan’s Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that Ankara could help establish “peace and stability” in the war-torn African state.

At a meeting in Port Sudan on Saturday, Burhan asked Turkey’s deputy foreign minister Burhanettin Duran to “deliver the Sudanese leadership’s welcoming of the initiative” to Erdogan, Sudanese foreign minister Ali Youssef said in a briefing after the meeting.

“Sudan needs brothers and friends like Turkey,” Youssef said, adding that “the initiative can lead to… realising peace in Sudan”.

Erdogan said in his December call with Burhan that Turkey “could step in to resolve disputes” between Sudan and the United Arab Emirates and prevent Sudan from “becoming an area of external interventions”, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.