Sudan government-SPLM-N negotiations suspended for ten days
AU mediator, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, has decided to suspend the current negotiation round between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), for a period of ten days. The negotiations collapsed on Sunday as both parties adhered to its position. “The Sudanese government rejects a comprehensive solution for the whole of Sudan, and the SPLM-N rejects a partial solution for South Kordofan and Blue Nile States only,” Episcopal Bishop Andodo Adam El Nil of the Diocese of South Kordofan’s capital of Kadugli told Radio Dabanga from Addis Ababa on Tuesday. The bishop who attended the negotiations as a “national civil advisors” said that the negotiation round collapsed as a result of the failure, “for the fifth time”, of the ruling National Conference Party to address the humanitarian issue in the two war-torn states, and “because both parties cling to their stance with respect to a comprehensive or partial solution”. For this reason, El Nil explained, Mbeki suspended the round for ten days. “More consultations are definitely needed.” According to the bishop, all the “national advisors” agree on the need to prioritise the humanitarian situation in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile. They also agree on the issue of a comprehensive solution for the Sudanese crisis. “We recommend both parties to seriously take the suffering of the people into consideration and seek to reach a comprehensive solution, not a partial one for one region only. This is because the overall solution is the one that will bring safety to Sudan.” The bishop stressed that “the most important issue at the moment is humanitarian aid”, and demanded from the warring parties “not to link the humanitarian aid needed in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile states and other war zones with politics or the current war”. On the ground, in West and North Kordofan, armed movements of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, a coalition of opposition forces) stressed the need for a comprehensive solution. “All the problems of Sudan, of Kordofan and Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, and the other regions, should be put together on the negotiating table,” Mohamed Bileil Eisa Zayid, deputy chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and JEM Secretary of the Kordofan region told Radio Dabanga. “Any partial solution for a particular region in Sudan is unacceptable.” File photo: Children from South Kordofan in the South Sudanese Yida refugee camp (Samaritan’s Purse) Related: Negotiations between Sudan government and SPLM-N collapse (16 February 2014)SPLM-N road map for negotiations with Sudanese government (16 February 2014)Unamid head meets President of Uganda (16 February 2014)Sudan opposition welcomes proposal of ‘unified platform’ (16 February 2014)
AU mediator, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, has decided to suspend the current negotiation round between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), for a period of ten days. The negotiations collapsed on Sunday as both parties adhered to its position.
“The Sudanese government rejects a comprehensive solution for the whole of Sudan, and the SPLM-N rejects a partial solution for South Kordofan and Blue Nile States only,” Episcopal Bishop Andodo El Nil of the Diocese of South Kordofan’s capital of Kadugli told Radio Dabanga from Addis Ababa on Tuesday.
The bishop who attended the negotiations as a “national civil advisors” said that the negotiation round collapsed as a result of the failure, “for the fifth time”, of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to address the humanitarian issue in the two war-torn states, and “because both parties cling to their stance with respect to a comprehensive or partial solution”.
For this reason, El Nil explained, Mbeki suspended the round for ten days. “More consultations are definitely needed.”
According to the bishop, all the “national advisors” agree on the need to prioritise the humanitarian situation in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile. They also agree on the issue of a comprehensive solution for the Sudanese crisis. “We recommend both parties to seriously take the suffering of the people into consideration and seek to reach a comprehensive solution, not a partial one for one region only. This is because the overall solution is the one that will bring safety to Sudan.”
The bishop stressed that “the most important issue at the moment is humanitarian aid”, and demanded from the warring parties “not to link the humanitarian aid needed in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile states and other war zones with politics or the current war”.
On the ground, in West and North Kordofan, members of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, a coalition of rebel groups) stressed the need for a comprehensive solution.
“All the problems of Sudan, of Kordofan and Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, and the other regions, should be put together on the negotiating table,” Mohamed Beleil, deputy chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and JEM Secretary of the Kordofan region told Radio Dabanga. “Any partial solution for a particular region in Sudan is unacceptable.”
File photo: Children from South Kordofan in the South Sudanese Yida refugee camp (Samaritan’s Purse)
Related:
Negotiations between Sudan government and SPLM-N collapse (16 February 2014)
SPLM-N road map for negotiations with Sudanese government (16 February 2014)
Unamid head meets President of Uganda (16 February 2014)
Sudan opposition welcomes proposal of ‘unified platform’ (16 February 2014)
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