Eastern Sudan consultative conference postponed

On Tuesday, the committee organising the eastern Sudan consultative conference in Khartoum announced the postponement of the conference until January 14.

Yesterday, Professor Siddig Tawir, member of Sudan's Sovereign Council, said in a press statement after a meeting of the committee in the Republican Palace in Khartoum that the communities in Red Sea state, Kassala, and El Gedaref have been granted three days more to prepare themselves well for the discussions.

Professor Tawir explained that the consultative conference will discuss items identified by eastern Sudanese stakeholders during the peace negotiations in the South Sudanese capital in the negotiation of stakeholders, not all the issues of eastern Sudan.

“The consultative conference is like an umbrella: It aims to reach unified visions on the issues to be negotiated during the peace talks on the eastern Sudan track,” he said.

The stakeholders are divided into categories: Native administration, the political forces, women and youth, the Forces for Freedom and Change, and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance.

Radio Dabanga reported yesterday that the three-day consultative conference, originally scheduled to start on January 11, must also pave the way for the inclusive conference proposed by eastern Sudanese community leaders who attended the peace talks in Juba, and which will address the marginalisation and the roots of conflicts in the East.

According to the organising committee of the University of Khartoum, the inclusive conference which, is “the appropriate forum for addressing the roots of chronic injustices that happened and are happening in eastern Sudan”.

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