FFC-Democratic Bloc to meet with South Sudan president in Juba

The deputy foreign affairs minister of South Sudan met with a delegation from the Forces for Freedom and Change-Democratic Bloc (FFC-DB) yesterday, as part of South Sudan’s “ongoing search for a way out of the crisis Sudan is going through”.

Deputy FA Minister Ramadan Abdallah said that the meeting with the FFC-DB is an extension of earlier meetings in Juba, “with political parties and active forces in the Sudanese political scene.

“The Sudanese crisis requires the concerted efforts of brotherly and friendly countries as the fighting continues.”

A delegation of the FFC-DB arrived in the South Sudan capital on Wednesday evening. They have been invited by the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to participate in political consultations with the aim of ending the war between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted more than nine months ago, displaced more than 11 million people, and has led to severe hunger in large parts of the country, in particular in Darfur and Kordofan.

President Mayardit recently extended invitations to various Sudanese political groups in an attempt to arrange for a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue to end the war, following the failure of both the Jeddah platform in Saudi-Arabia and the Horn of Africa’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to convince the commanders of the warring parties to agree to meet.

Dhieu Mathok, South Sudanese Minister of Investment and member of the Sudanese crisis mediation team, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday that President Mayardit is now taking the lead for “an all-inclusive inter-Sudanese dialogue”.

Last week, the president met with representatives of the Civil Democratic Forces alliance (Tagaddum), consisting of the Sudanese Congress Party, the National Umma Party, the SPLM-Democratic Revolutionary Movement, and other members of the mainstream Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC-Central Council).

He also wants to involve Abdelaziz El Hilu, commander of the Sudan People Liberation movement-North (SPLM-N El Hilu) and Abdelwahid Nur, leader of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) in the dialogue. “In short, President Salva Kiir wants a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue, and before talking to the SAF, he wants to see the Sudanese street positioned in one voice against the war,” Mathok said.

Democratic Bloc

The FFC-DB was formed in November 2022*, and consists of two Darfur rebel movements that backed the SAF-RSF coup d’etat in October 2021 (the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Jibril Ibrahim, the Sudan Liberation Movement split-off faction headed by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), the Democratic Justice Alliance chaired by former rebel leader Mubarak Ardol, and the mainstream Democratic Unionist Party in early November last year. The alliance also includes the Republican Party, the Beja Nazirs Council wing chaired by Sayed Tirik, the National Movement Forces coalition of former Darfur leader El Tijani Sese, and a number of split-off groups from mainstream political parties.

The group was not welcomed by the mainstream FFC (FFC-Central Council), which earlier refused to cooperate with “parties that are not interested in democracy”.

Mubarak Ardol told Radio Dabanga yesterday that they accepted the invitation “to discuss how to end the war and achieve stability and peace. We are open to any suggestions and will offer positive and bold opinions.”

On the arrival of Minawi to Juba before the arrival of the rest of the members of the of the FFC-DB, he explained that “we all arrived for what is basically one visit.

“Some of us came together with Commander Minawi in preparation for the meeting with President Salva Kiir Mayardit. He is now leading the delegation together with El Tijani Sese and leaders of the other political groups,” he said. “The delegation will meet according to what is programmed with the president of South Sudan this evening.”

Ardol further pointed out that the visit consists of two parts, “the first consists of the meeting with the president and the second meeting is reserved to discuss internal arrangements for the Democratic Bloc alliance and several other coalitions”.

The Democratic Bloc leader stressed that the South Sudanese president has not yet raised any issue related to “mediation between us and the FFC-Central Council.”

He added that “the FFC-DB is by nature open to all political meetings and does not seek to monopolise the political process or impose itself as the only force in the Sudanese political arena. The Democratic Bloc will be the forerunner to what can lead to peace, stability and national consensus.”

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* The predecessor of the FFC-DB was the FFC-National Accord, set up in end 2021. The faction, also known as the National Accord Forces, was chaired by Mubarak Ardol, former spokesmen for the Sudan People Liberation Movement-North. Ardol was re-appointed director of the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources in early 2020 by the government of PM Abdallah Hamdok and was dismissed from his function by the de factor Council of Ministers in Port Sudan on October 15 last year – though he reportedly maintains friendly ties with members of the now dissolved National Congress Party of  Omar Al Bashir. The former rebel leader supported the joint SAF-RSF October 2021 coup d’etat, like the JEM and SLM-MM, in various instances.