New Sudan govt to be announced this week

Ibrahim El Sheikh, leading member of the Central Council of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) reported yesterday that a new Sudan government, which will include members of the rebel movements that signed the Juba Peace Agreement, will be announced this week.

Three seats will be added to the Sovereign Council for members of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebel alliance. At this moment, the Sovereign Council consists of five military members and six civilian members.

The FFC have nominated persons for 17 portfolios, El Sheikh said.

Seven ministries are to be allocated to the rebel alliance: Finance, Federal Governance, Energy and Mining, Education, Social Development, and Urban Development. Nominations for these ministries have been received. “We are very close to the announcement of the new cabinet, as soon as the prime minister returns from his medical check-up in the United Arab Emirates this week,” the party leader stated.

He explained that the governors in states where the ‘peace partners’ (the rebel movements that signed the Juba Peace Agreement in October last year) control territory or have their following will be replaced as well.

He said that consultations continue with the Coordination of the Resistance Committees active in neighbourhoods and villages to form the Legislative Council. All components of the Sudanese society will be represented in the Legislative Council, he promised.

SPLM-N El Hilu

The President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, has called for the resumption of peace negotiations with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu). A delegation of the South Kordofan holdout rebel movement is in Juba and fully prepared to resume negotiations with the government, Kiir said.

Kiir said so during a meeting with the Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ in Juba yesterday.

Advisor to the South Sudanese president and head of the mediation team of the Sudanese peace talks Tut Galuak said in a press statement following the meeting that progress in the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement had been discussed. Hemeti briefed Kiir regarding the formation of peace implementation committees and the efforts to form a new government including the new peace partners.

SPLM-N El Hilu withdrew from the peace negotiations in Juba in August 2019 because Hemeti was the chairman of the government delegation. Hemeti is also Commander-in-Chief of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.

The SPLM-N El Hilu delegation said at the time that involvement of RSF forces in violence in Khor El Waral, and areas around Delling, along with “heinous crimes” committed against unarmed civilians in various parts of Sudan, have led the rebel faction to withdraw.

One of the main differences of opinion between the Sudanese government and SPLM-N El Hilu, is the rebel movement’s stand on secularism and self-determination in South Kordofan.

Last week, the leader of the Darfur based Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi denied that El Hilu was prepared to join peace negotiations.

Kiir and Hemeti also discussed the developments in the region, including the war in Tigray in Ethiopia, neighbouring Kassala and El Gedaref in eastern Sudan, and the Sudanese-Ethiopian border tensions.

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