The contested president of Sudan’s sovereign council and leader of last October’s military coup, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, culminated on the evening of Sept. 24 an international tour of sorts that included the West for the first time since he took power. The trips were portrayed by Sudanese coup authorities as the beginning of a new chapter in their relations with Western capitals, which isolated the military junta after it seized power. But by the end of the tour, Burhan had failed to achieve any significant diplomatic breakthroughs.

Burhan’s tour included London, where he attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, then New York, where he addressed the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and finally Cairo, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. However, the Sudanese general only managed to be received in a courtesy meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and did not meet any Western official.

“Neither the trips to the UK or the US signal the acceptance of these countries of the coup or the post-coup situation it created,” said Nada Wanni, an independent researcher and consultant focused on Sudan and the Horn of Africa. She told Al-Monitor, “Despite attempts by some to spin these trips as such, officials from both countries made clear in their statements following these events that this was not the case.”

Although none of the visits revolved around Burhan, the opposition in Sudan and abroad criticized the West for not taking a more forceful stance against his attempts to break his international isolation in search of some diplomatic recognition. In New York, members of the Sudanese diaspora held demonstrations to express their solidarity with the ongoing revolution in Sudan, condemn the visit and demand greater pressure.