Sudanese govt promises ‘comprehensive national dialogue’ during US delegation visit

In a meeting with the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, who are currently visiting Sudan, the Sudanese Sovereignty Council promised to hold a comprehensive national dialogue to find a solution to the current political crisis. Earlier, the US representatives said that the USA will not resume any aid unless a civilian-led government is reinstated.

The Sudanese Sovereignty Council, which is not allowed to interfere in executive tasks, said that it agreed with the American delegation to hold a comprehensive national dialogue in the form of a round table discussion, including ‘all political and societal forces’, to reach a national consensus on the way out of the current crisis.

In a press statement following the meeting in Khartoum, the Sovereignty Council stated that the two parties agreed on forming an independent government of technocrats, led by a civilian prime minister to complete the tasks of the three-year transitional period.

The meeting included Sovereignty Council Chairman and coup leader Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, Deputy Chairman and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Gen Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, council members Lt Gen Yasir El Ata, and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Omar, and the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Molly Phee, and Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield, who are currently visiting Sudan.

The statement indicated that the two sides emphasised the importance of making amendments to the August 2019 Constitutional Document to keep up with new developments and of holding free and fair elections at the end of the transitional period.

Yesterday, Phee and Satterfield strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force against protestors and stressed that the USA will not resume the currently suspended assistance to the Sudanese government without the restoration of a civilian-led government.

'There is no way out of the current political crisis except by responding to the demands of the street’ – Khaled Omar

Khaled Omar, a leading member of the Forces for Freedom and Change who resigned as Minister of Cabinet Affairs after the October 25 military coup, said that there is no way out of the current political crisis except by responding to ‘the demands of the street’, where pro-democracy protests have taken place since the October 25 coup.

In a press statement published after his meeting with the visiting US officials and US Embassy staff in Khartoum yesterday, Omar explained that “the crimes committed by the coup authorities in the face of the peaceful popular movement show the need to establish a new constitutional framework with popular legitimacy based on full civilian authority”.

He also stressed the need to establish “comprehensive measures of justice that unequivocally do justice to the victims” of the military’s violent answers to the peaceful protests”.