Yasir Arman: ‘Rebel delegation not in Khartoum to negotiate’

Delegations from the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Malik Agar (SPLM-N Agar) and the Kush Alliance arrived in Khartoum on Monday.

SPLM-N Agar Deputy Chairman Yasir Arman told reporters at Khartoum International Airport that the delegation has finally returned to Khartoum to push forward the spirit of partnership with the transitional government to reach a just, comprehensive and urgent peace, pointing out that they did not come to negotiate.

The SPLM-N agar is member of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) alliance of armed movements. Arman said that the SRF is working in a unified way to resolve its issues, which he described as difficult, pointing to local, regional and global intersections concerning the peace process in Sudan.

He reported the arrival of a second delegation with leaders from the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council headed by El Hadi Idris and the Sudan Liberation Forces Alliance (SLFA) led by El Tahir Hajar.

Mohamed El Faki, member of the Sovereign Council welcomed the delegation, hoping that the visit would contribute to pushing forward the peace process.

'Not related'

RSF members Minni Minawi, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Jibril Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, and El Amin Daoud, head of the eastern Sudanese United Popular Front for Liberation and Justice, said in a statement this week that their movements are not related to the delegations, stressing that it does not represent the SRF rebel alliance, that the SRF did not take a decision to send a delegation, and was not consulted in these measures.

The statement described the letter that President Salva Kiir’s security affairs advisor and chairman of the mediating team, Tut Galwak sent to the deputy head of the Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, informing him of the arrival of delegations from the SRF and the SPLM-N Agar to Khartoum as “unsuccessful and not subject to an agreement and interference in its internal affairs, which is inconsistent with the functions of mediation and neutrality”.

The statement said that the SRF did not send a delegation on its behalf and did not delegate anyone to deliberate on the negotiation issues, especially the contents of the Juba Declaration of Principles, signed by the parties on September 11..

The SRF thanked South Sudan for its efforts to realise peace and expressed the hope that “the party that caused this confusion to rectify the excess so as not to torpedo the entire peace process”.

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