New Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North head El Hilu calls for unity

In his first speech after his election as president of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction in South Kordofan, Abdelaziz El Hilu has announced his commitment to the unity of the Movement, and called for focusing on the factors of unity and rejecting the causes of disagreement.

He praised the Extraordinary General Conference, held in Kauda in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, which lasted from Sunday until Thursday, for recognition of the right of self-determination as a human and legal right for people.

He called for the need for self-reliance and said that the civil national executive administration bodies in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states are expected to develop unified programmes and policies on the basis of the vision of the new Sudan.

The Extraordinary General Conference affirmed that the right of self-determination remains, as a means to achieve the group's aspiration for a multicultural and plural nation in Sudan. The members agreed on the need to develop the capacities of a rebel army through an enhanced training and to “continue military operations against the enemy through regular battles to maintain the momentum of the war”.

'No rapprochement with Malik Agar'

However, the participants decided to close the door for any rapprochement with the SPLM-N in Blue Nile state led by Malik Agar: “The Conference stressed the need for the unity and cohesion of the SPLM-N under the elected leadership and not to pay attention to any groups or platforms that speak in the name of the SPLM.”

The extraordinary general conference was scheduled to start on 6 October. But difficulties to reach the landlocked site in the rebel-hold area delayed the delegates, in combination with organisational matters related to the representation of the different areas outside the Nuba Mountains.

In March, El Hilu resigned from his position as the SPLM-N deputy chairman and blamed the chief of the peace negotiation delegation, Yasir Arman, of the movement of neglecting his request to include the right to self-determination in the agenda of the peace talks with Khartoum. The Nuba Mountains Liberation Council publicly supported the resignation and replaced leader Agar with his deputy El Hilu, which paved the way for a split in the group.