Informal consultations between Sudan, SPLM-N next week
December 8, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – A two-day informal meeting will be held between the Sudanese Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) in the Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa next week, disclosed the Khartoum office of the African Union (AU), Tuesday.
Thabo Mbeki, head of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) which brokers peace talks to end armed conflicts in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states and Darfur region, last November suspended the 10th round of negotiations after the two sides had voiced their need for more consultations on the outstanding issues.
Mbeki had said, then, that contacts will continue with the parties in a bid to fix a new date for the resumption of talks on the two tracks.
Director of the AU office in Khartoum Mahmoud Kan on Tuesday told the semi-official Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) that the AUHIP has proposed to the government and the SPLM/N the convening of talks between small delegations from the two parties and experts from the AUHIP.
“The forthcoming meeting is not official. It is meant to narrow the differences between the two sides ,” Kan said, adding that the two sides had agreed to attend the Addis Ababa talks next week.
During the tenth round of talks, held in Addis Ababa from 19 to 23 November, the two sides had failed to reach agreement on humanitarian access to civilians in the war affected zones in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
The SPLM-N calls for the delivery of humanitarian assistance through Ethiopia and South Sudan, a matter which is forcefully rejected by Khartoum.
Another point of contention was the issue of security arrangements between the two sides. In that respect the SPLM/N had rejected a government proposal for the deployment of its forces in the two areas once an agreement was signed.
Also Khartoum demands the immediate negotiation of a permanent ceasefire agreement leading to disarm the SPLM-N fighters but the rebel group says such step can intervene only when a political agreement is reached on the contentious issues.
In the meantime, over 100 civil society organizations and prominent personalities from around the World sent a letter to the UN General Secretary and the United States President urging for hold Sudanese government responsible for preventing humanitarian aid to reach the needy in the war zones.
The signatories underlined that the refusal of humanitarian access should be recognized as a crime and violation of the international humanitarian law.
(ST)