US Special Envoy to meet Sudan’s rebels in Addis

A consultative meeting will be held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday and Friday to discuss peace in Sudan. The meeting was called by US special envoy Donald Booth.

It will be attended by delegations from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), and the National Umma Party of El Sadig El Mahdi.

On Tuesday, JEM head Dr Jibril Ibrahim told Radio Dabanga that Thursday's meeting is an invitation from the US envoy so as to consult on the peace process in Sudan.

He predicted the roadmap, the outputs of the last meeting in Doha with the Qatari mediator and head of Unamid, and the meeting of El Sadig El Mahdi with mediator Thabo Mbeki in Johannesburg will be discussed at the meeting.

He said the meeting in Addis is expected to be mainly on how to overcome the dialogue impasse in the peace process in Sudan.

He confirmed that mediator Mbeki and his team, and the government of Sudan, will not be part of the meeting.

Dr Ibrahim described the consultation meeting in Addis Ababa as an opportunity for the four entities to engage in consultation between them.

He said “we expect that we will inform the leadership  council of Sudan Appeal with whatever we reach in Addis Ababa so that we all agree on the line we move on”.

He expressed hope that the result of Addis meeting will be presented to the leadership of the council of Sudan Appeal so as to agree make it a base for the decisions to be made.