Sudanese government suspends contacts with umbrella opposition NDA

KHARTOUM, Feb 29 (AFP) — Khartoum has suspended contacts with the umbrella opposition group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), for admitting rebels fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region into its ranks, a newspaper said here Sunday.

The Al Rai Al Aam daily said Vice President Ali Osman Taha informed NDA envoy Jaafer Ahmed Abdallah that Khartoum had decided to stop contacts until the NDA “corrects its decision to admit the Darfur rebels” as members.

The government and the NDA had been meeting to implement an agreement they signed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in December which they had hailed as a major step toward reconciling the nation and ending a 20-year civil war.

Taha told the NDA envoy that the decision had been taken by the ruling National Congress (NC) party because the Jeddah agreement with NDA chairman Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani called for rejecting violence.

He recalled that the rebels in the western Darfur region were still fighting government forces, according to the independent newspaper.

The NDA said in mid-February that during a meeting in Asmara, where it is based, its leadership unanimously accepted a request from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the main rebel grouping in Darfur, to become a member.

The NDA is composed of key northern opposition groups as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

The Islamist government in Khartoum and the SPLA, which has been fighting for the rights of animists and Christians in the south, have made giant strides toward ending 20 years of civil war at peace negotiations in Kenya.

The Jeddah agreement was hailed by Khartoum as bolstering the peace negotiations by allowing everyone to benefit from them.

Mirghani had complained that northern opposition parties, some of whom joined the southern rebels in armed conflict with Khartoum, were excluded from the direct negotiations between the SPLA and the government.