US Envoy Booth visits Sudan’s Blue Nile

A visit on Monday to Sudan’s Blue Nile state by Donald Booth, the US Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, has been hailed as ‘an important step’ by traditional leaders.

Booth met with the officials, war-affected people, and the organisations working in the region, and said that his country supports peace in Sudan, and urges all parties to join the national dialogue.

Speaking at the Republican Palace in Khartoum on Tuesday, following a meeting with Ibrahim Mahmoud, Assistant to the President and the head of the government negotiating delegation, Booth said that his meeting with Mahmoud dealt with the possibility of pushing the negotiations forward, and stressed his country's desire to achieve peace in Sudan.

The US envoy added that the success of the negotiations is important; through fruitful negotiation and national dialogue to reach an agreement.

Mak Abu Shotal, one of the native administration leaders in Blue Nile, has described the visit as “an important step as the Blue Nile state is considered one of the war-affected regions”.

He expects Booth’s visit to have a positive impact on the peace process as it aims to assess the situation in the Blue Nile.

He said the US envoy had to confine his meeting to representatives of the government and state notables at El Damazin. “The rainfall and floods precluded him from visiting other areas to assess the reality of the people there.

“The results would have been greater if the visit was accompanied by an appropriate media programme which would cover the plight of the masses affected by the war in the Blue Nile.”

Shotal described the envoy’s assessment of the situation in the Blue Nile as significant for both the government and the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).