Negotiations between Sudan government and SPLM-N collapse

The direct negotiations between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) collapsed on Sunday morning. Talks began on Thursday evening and no breakthrough was recorded on any of the negotiating files.

The chairmen of both delegations announced that the direct negotiations were halted after an initial meeting on Sunday morning. Both parties stated that the way the dialogue was taking place between them was to no avail. They raised the issue to the African mediation team that held separate talks with each party to hear its point of view. The team would then decide on a stoppage of the negotiations, or a continuation in an indirect way, through the exchange of notes by an intermediary.

Mubarak Ardol, the official spokesman for the SPLM-N negotiating team, told Radio Dabanga that the Sunday round of negotiations was closed twenty minutes after its start, because of what he called the “intransigence of the Sudanese government delegation, headed by Dr Ibrahim Ghandour”.

“Ghandour insisted that the humanitarian aid should be delivered by governmental organisations, which is contrary to the opinion of the SPLM-N. We want the aid delivery to proceed according to international standards.”

Ardol said that the government delegation also insisted on confining the cease fire and a political solution to the states of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile. “This means that the wars in Darfur and North Kordofan will continue,” the spokesman noted.

“The only possibility to save the negotiations is when Thabo Mbeki, head of the AU mediation team, manages to persuade the two parties to return to the negotiating table on the basis of an assurance of the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in the war-affected areas in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile,” he said.

The chairman of the government delegation, Dr Ibrahim Ghandour, said in a press statement that the SPLM-N delegation's “sudden changed position” surprised them on Sunday. He explained that the delegation announced its rejection of the August 2012 tripartite agreement on the humanitarian situation, and instead stated that the Framework Agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N on 28 June 2011 is the only document they recognise. The SPLM-N also refused to confine the negotiations to the Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Dr Ghandour attributed the sudden change in the SPLM’s position to pressure exerted by allies of the Sudan Revolutionary Front and unnamed others.

On 4 August 2012, the government of Sudan and the SPLM-N signed separate memoranda of understanding with the so-called “tripartite partners”, the UN, AU and the League of Arab States. The deal with the Sudanese government had a duration of only 90 days, and expired.

The 28 June 2011 Framework Agreement was signed by SPLM’s chairman Malik Agar and Nafie Ali Nafie, advisor to the President, after a war broke out early the same month in South Kordofan. The agreement was swiftly denounced by the Sudanese president few days later under the apparent pressure from the army as it calls to establish political partnership with the rebels.

File photo: Bombardment on South Kordofan