Sudan’s NCP discusses power-sharing again with Darfur party

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is conducting discussions with the National Liberation and Justice Party (NLJP) former Darfurian rebel faction to reintegrate in the government, after it suspended its participation on 17 June.

Leader Dr El Tijani Sese has announced the suspension of its political partnership with the ruling party and to withdraw from the government. The former rebel group accused the NCP of not honouring a political agreement to power-sharing between the two parties.

NCP political secretary Mustafa Osman Ismail told the semi-official Sudan Media Centre that the NCP deputy chairman, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, recently met with Sese to discuss the issues.

Furthermore, the head of the Darfur office at the NCP, El Daw El Faki, expressed his party’s readiness to reach an understanding on the political power-sharing with the former rebels.

In a press conference held on Wednesday 18 June, the four-months-old NLJP said that the suspension does not affect the implementation of the 2011 peace agreement, the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD). It did announce that all of the party's officials were withdrawn from their posts in the central and state governments. The NLJP was conceived from the former rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM).

The party's power-sharing protocol with the NCP is part of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) of 2011, which was co-signed firstly by Sese's movement, and later by the former rebel JEM-Sudan.

(ST)

DDPD term ends soon

The official in charge of the Darfur file in the DDPD, Dr Oman Hassan Omar, has announced that the DDPD ends as of next 13 July. He said he expects that the period stipulated in the DDPD will “most likely be extended”.

He also said that the government considers the possibility of a tempory extension or a termination according to the term. He pointed out that Dr El Tijani Sese will still remain the head of Darfur Regional Authority, which implements the agreements in the document.

End of December last year, internal conflicts in the Liberation and Justice Movements surfaced, when Bahar Idris Abu Garda, LJM Secretary-General, publicly accused Sese of mismanagement and delaying the implementation of the DDPD security arrangements. Abu Garda furthermore announced the formation of a new political party, the Liberation and Justice Party.