AUHIP invites Sudanese govt., opposition to Addis

Sudanese opposition leaders have received an invitation from the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) to meet with a government delegation in Addis Ababa on 16-18 March.

The invitation concerns a consultative strategic meeting and is addressed to the Sudanese government, the National Umma Party, the People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), the Justice and Equality Movement, and the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Minni Minawi.

The SPLM-N said in a statement on Monday that they have accepted the invitation. Mubarak Ardol, the political spokesman for the movement, told Radio Dabanga that the SPLM-N will consult the other opposition groups with the aim to provide a unified position, “of which the basis is already laid out in the Sudan Appeal document”.

Ardol stressed that his movement does not consider the coming meeting as “an alternative for the preparatory National Dialogue meeting”. He pointed to the repeated calls by the Sudanese government to the rebels to join the Dialogue in Khartoum, and said that “the SPLM-N will never will participate in this government monologue”.

“The SPLM-N is fully prepared to take part in a dialogue with Khartoum based on equality and credibility, to stop the wars and restore freedoms, and achieve a comprehensive solution for the various crises in the country,” he stated.

The Sudan Appeal communiqué, signed by political, civil, and armed opposition leaders in the Ethiopian capital on 3 December 2014, calls for the ending of the civil wars in the country, the dismantling of the one-party system, and the rebuilding of Sudan based on democratic principles and equal citizenship.

The signatories of the two-page document agree that if a peaceful regime change cannot be achieved by a broad dialogue, it should be enforced by a popular uprising.