‘Al Bashir unfit to chair any reconciliation’: Sudan’s Umma Party

The National Umma Party described President Omar Al Bashir’s speech on Sunday, in which he slammed the opposition party’s agreement with a rebel alliance, as “lies” and “defamation of character”. The party, headed by El Sadig El Mahdi, said in a statement that Al Bashir’s speech at the General Assembly of the National Dialogue “confirmed the extent of his fall. “The Paris Declaration is a 100 percent national initiative,” it read, adding that the broad consensus gained with the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of Sudan’s main rebel groups) in the Paris Declaration “pulled the rug out from under the feet of the ruling party and its leader, causing him to lose balance”. The opposition party further described Al Bashir’s comments on Sunday as “senseless”. “It is a proof that he is not the suitable person to chair any mechanism for reconciliation.” The Umma Party will file a law suit against the President, for defamation of character. Al Bashir branded the Paris Declaration on Sunday “an Israeli product that begins with the SRF’s declaration of El Fasher as a national capital”, claiming that the party and rebel movements crossed a red line. File photo: President of Sudan Omar Al Bashir talks to the press, in the back National Umma Party leader El Sadig El Mahdi (Reuters) Related: Sudan’s President slams Paris Declaration (4 November 2014)