SPLMN-Al-Hilu authorises leader to appoint transitional organs
July 8, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement /North (SPLMN-al-Hilu) Friday has authorised its leader Abdel-Aziz Adam al-Hilu to form transitional organs to run the Movement until holding the extraordinary national conference.
The SPLMN-Al-Hilu has held a three-day meeting in the Nuba Mountain region including 753 members representing the political and military leadership, civil administrations, civil society organisations, native and religious leaders, women, youth, widows and children of martyrs and the disabled.
The final communiqué extended to Sudan Tribune Saturday, said the meeting discussed the current political situation, praising the decision of the Movement’s army to side with the vision of the New Sudan project.
As a result of a rift that started earlier this year and its successive developments, the SPLM-N is now split into two factions one led by Malik Agar and the other by his rival al-Hilu.
Al-Hilu, who gained the support of the Movement’s army, has removed Malik Agar from the leadership of the armed group together with the Secretary General Yasser Arman after they rejected his demand for the self-determination.
According to the final communiqué, the meeting decided to continue the armed struggle and other means until “toppling the regime of the tyrannical minority in Khartoum and restructuring the Sudanese state on new foundations”.
The meeting underscored constitutionality of all decisions taken by the Nuba Mountain Liberation Council (NMLC) and the Blue Nile Liberation Council (BNLC) in the absence of the national institutions, stressing the need to maintain the unity of the Movement and its army.
The SPLMN-al-Hilu pointed out that the extraordinary national conference would achieve a number of tasks including to approve the Movement’s manifesto and constitution, form the internal structures, elect the national leadership and determine the strategic objective of the political talks with the government.
The meeting also demanded the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and the Sudan Troika countries to recognise the decisions of the NMLC and the BNLC regarding the recent developments within the movement, urging all political forces and forces of change to deal with al-Hilu as the legitimate leader of the Movement.
On the other hand, the meeting accused Agar and Arman of “making secret deals with known parties for the purpose of giving up arms and the SPLA-N”, describing the move as “betrayal of the project, vision, goals and blood of the martyrs”.
The Sudanese army has been fighting the SPLM-N rebels in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, also known as the Two Areas since 2011.
Talks between the two sides for a cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access are stalled since last August. The SPLM-N demands to deliver 20% of the humanitarian assistance through a humanitarian corridor from Asosa, an Ethiopian border town.
But the government rejects the idea saying it is a breach of the state sovereignty and a manoeuvre from the rebels to bring arms and ammunition to their locked rebel-held areas in the Two Areas.
In a letter handed over last week to the head of the AUHIP Thabo Mbeki, SPLMN-Agar reiterated its readiness to engage in talks for a humanitarian cessation of hostilities.
SPLMN-Agar underscored the fact the SPLM-N now is divided into two groups and expressed readiness to form a joint delegation with the SPLMN-al-Hilu for the talks for a humanitarian truce which requires a COH agreement.
Nonetheless, it added that the joint delegation depends on an agreement between the two factions.
(ST)