AUHIP, Sudan Call talks set to start in Berlin

Tomorrow the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and representatives of the Sudan Call forces will meet in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the revitalisation of the peace process in Sudan.

El Sadig El Mahdi, head of the National Umma Party and Sudan Call forces, said that the Berlin meeting would discuss the details after AUHIP chairman Thabo Mbeki modified his position on the so-called road map. Mbeki has decided to resume his mediation in another way that would be acceptable for the peace process.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, El Mahdi took the opportunity to welcome the second conciliatory meeting to be held in Juba next week, under the auspices of South Sudan President Salva Kiir, between factions from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and Sudanese government representatives.

Sudan Call leader El Mahdi, who lives in the UK but plans to return to Sudan in December, expressed hope that these meetings would resolve the technical issues between the armed groups on the permanent cessation of hostilities and a sustained flow of humanitarian relief to people in need in Sudan’s areas of conflict.

The president’s spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, pointed out that President Kiir will try to bring together the fragmented factions of the SPLM-N led by Malik Agar and Abdelaziz El Hilu. “Mediation goes beyond the two regions (South Kordofan and Blue Nile), to include the Darfur movements and all opponents of the Sudanese government,” he added.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has been fighting against government forces in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since 2011.

The Sudanese government and the SPLM-N faction led by El Hilu held a consultative meeting over the continuation of peace talks in Johannesburg last week, which concluded without significant progress.

During these meetings, the AUHIP and the government had proposed to agree on three documents: the draft framework agreement for 2014, the draft agreement on the cessation of hostilities for humanitarian purposes, and the Roadmap agreement of 2016.

In other pre-negotiations meetings in last April, the German foreign ministry and the Berghof Foundation held a meeting between the Darfuri armed movements (SLM-MM, JEM) and the Sudanese government in Berlin to discuss a pre-negotiation agreement but the government delegation refused the second demand.