Al Bashir declares ceasefire in Sudan’s Two Areas

On Friday President Omar Al Bashir declared a four-month unilateral cessation of hostilities in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

The ceasefire, that would take effect at midnight on Saturday, renews the call of the Sudanese president for the opposition forces to join the National Dialogue process before the general assembly of the national dialogue which will be held on 6 August, the Sudanese News Agency (Suna) reported on Saturday.

On 28 April, Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) declared a six- month unilateral cessation of hostilities, and urged the AU mediation team to organise a meeting with the government to make it effective.

On Thursday, leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), and the National Umma Party met with the US Special Envoy Donald Booth for consultations on the peace process in Sudan.

JEM head Dr Jibril Ibrahim told Radio Dabanga on Tuesday that Booth invited them to discuss the roadmap, the outputs of the last meeting in Doha with the Qatari mediator and the head of Unamid, and the meeting of El Sadig El Mahdi with mediator Thabo Mbeki in Johannesburg.

Ibrahim expected the meeting to focus on ways to overcome the dialogue impasse in the Sudanese peace process.

He confirmed that both the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), headed by Thabo Mbeki, and the government of Sudan will not take part in the meeting.

(Suna, Sudan Tribune)