‘Largest defeat of Sudan army in years’: Arman, SPLM-N

The armed rebels in Sudan’s Blue Nile claim that the government’s military and paramilitary forces “have suffered their biggest defeat in the six years of their military offensive”.

Yasir Arman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said that this year witnessed an unprecedented defeat of the government forces. Speaking to Radio Dabanga on Monday, the Secretary-General provided statistics that support his claim.

“Official numbers revealed the destruction and seizing of more than 30 tanks, more than 300 vehicles, hundreds of light arms, and dozens of long-range guns from the government forces,” Arman said.

Opposition’s charter

“The meeting of the Sudan Appeal forces in Paris last week was successful,” he went on. “For the first time, the signatories of the Sudan Appeal have been able to agree on a charter that will define the future of Sudan and the system of its rule.”

The political charter that was signed at the conclusion of a four-day series of meetings, sets out the basis and principles for the management of the four-year transitional period to achieve peace, security and democratic transformation in Sudan and identify the functions with which the government will be tasked.

The Sudan Appeal signatories – the National Umma Party, the Sudanese Communist Party, the coalition of the of National Consensus Forces (the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, the Justice and Equality Movement and both Sudan Revolutionary Fronts) and civil society organisations – also met with the Sudan Troika and the EU.

AUHIP roadmap

Their envoys called on the Sudanese armed movements to sign a roadmap for peace that was proposed by the mediating African Union panel (AUHIP) and signed by the Sudanese government in Ethiopia on 19 March.

Arman reiterated the position on the proposed roadmap, which was unanimously rejected by the signatories of the Sudan Appeal in its current form.

“The forces of the Sudan Appeal agreed on this. We are not against peace or dialogue,” Arman stressed. Similar to Umma Party leader El Sadig El Mahdi, he finds the current form of the roadmap unacceptable.

Several international actors started exerting pressure on opposition parties to accept the roadmap, however, their rejection gained wide support among other opposition forces and Sudanese public opinion. The Sudan Democracy First Group presented several “valid reasons” for the armed movements not to sign the roadmap presented by the AU.