SPLM-N, Sudan share points of disagreement in Addis

The mediation teams of the Sudanese government and the armed rebel movement SPLM-N have held separate meetings in Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union. The negotiations are aimed at reaching an official cessation of hostilities to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

On Wednesday a new round of negotiations between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N, led by Abdelaziz Adam El Hilu) began in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The delegations are led by SPLM-N Secretary-General Ammar Amum and Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, assistant to the president of Sudan.

Yesterday the delegations handed in their proposals on the points of disagreement which led to a deadlock in previous negotiations. The African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), led by Thabo Mbeki, is brokering the talks and will study the proposals and include them in one paper, to be presented before the two delegations on Friday, the official Sudanese news agency Suna reported.

A spokesman for the government’s delegation said that Khartoum is determined to reach peace through the cessation of hostilities, directly and indirectly leading to a permanent ceasefire. “With security arrangements that will help in the delivery of humanitarian aid and the freedom of movement.”

Humanitarian aid

In August 2016, simultaneous negotiations between the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N on the Two Areas, and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement-MM on Darfur, brokered by the AUHIP in Addis Ababa, collapsed. The provision of humanitarian aid to war victims led to a deadlock in the talks concerning the Two Areas.

Informed press sources in Addis Ababa told Radio Dabanga that the SPLM-N delegation, headed by secretary-general Ammar Amum, presented a written paper for the mediation which holds the movement’s vision for the form and content of the cessation of hostilities.

From the side of the SPLM-N led by El Hilu, an unilateral ceasefire is effective from the first day of February for four months.

The sources said that the paper brokers for a negotiated agreement with the government, including conditions for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the rebel-hold areas in the Two Areas through both external and internal tracks.

Request for postponement of the talks

A number of opposition groups in Sudan have received an invitation from the AUHIP to attend a consultative meeting in Addis Ababa on the peace process and democratic reforms in Sudan.

Many opposition leaders however are currently being detained by the Sudanese security apparatus as they called for protests against the government’s most recent austerity measures.