Sudan committee, opposition agree on National Dialogue

Delegations of Sudan’s National Dialogue committee, the Sudan Revolutionary Front, and the National Umma Party signed an agreement on Thursday, “on the national dialogue and constitutional process”, under auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The eight-point text was signed in separate documents by El Sadig El Mahdi, leader of the National Umma Party (NUP), and Malik Agar, chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of the main rebel movements in Sudan) from the opposition side. The two attending members and representatives of the National Dialogue ‘7+6 Steering Committee’ were Ghazi Salaheldin El Atabani, chairman of the Reform Now Movement, and Ahmed Saad Omar, Minister at the Presidency, and prominent member of the mainstream Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Thabo Mbeki, the chief of the AU High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), attended the signing. “Comprehensive political settlement is the ideal option to resolve the Sudanese problem,” the signed text says. It further provides that “stopping war, reaching cessation of hostilities and addressing the humanitarian situation shall be an absolute priority in confidence building measures”. It further states that a dialogue shall be conducted according to “agreed-upon time frames”, and that all stakeholders are guaranteed of participation, with the objective of reaching national consensus. News photo: Thabo Mbeki (C) with Malik Agar on his left at the signing ceremony of an agreement with the National Dialogue committee on 4 September in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Click on the image below to read the full text Related: Sudan’s rebels conclude consultations with AU panel (4 September 2014)