Salva Kiir invites Sudan’s armed groups to meet in Juba
August 11, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit invited the leaders of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) to meet in Juba on Monday as part of his efforts to facilitate peace in Sudan.
Since November 2018, the South Sudanese government has begun contacts with the armed opposition groups to end the armed conflicts in Darfur and the Two regions. Also, it sought to reunite the SPLM-N factions failed to convince the faction led by Abdel Aziz al Hilu to accept the reconciliation.
In addition, last July Juba hosted a meeting of a joint delegation from the military council and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) with the two SPLM-N factions to move up the ongoing efforts for peace in Sudan.
The SRF leaders, according to reliable sources, received an invitation from the Government of South Sudan to meet in Juba to discuss peace issues before the signing the final agreement the military council and the FFC groups scheduled for next Saturday 17 August.
The sources said the SPLM-N led by Malik Agar, which is part of the SRF, asked to postpone the meeting until September.
For his part, the SPLM-N’s deputy chairman Yasir Arman denied reports that some SRF groups declined the invitation of the South Sudanese government.
The invitation to visit South Sudan is appreciated and welcomed, and we will do it in the near future,” he said adding that “the people of South Sudan have always represented for us what represent the people of Sudan”.
Different sources say Cairo wants to host the peace talks between the transitional government that will be formed in the upcoming weeks and the armed groups.
However, Juba believes that its good relations with the opposition groups will serve to bring the parties to make the needed concessions to reach a needed swift peace agreement.
But, Juba failure to reconcile the SPLM-N factions or to bring al-Hilu to sign a cessation of hostilities agreement with the military council last July are also seen as a demonstration of its limited capacity to convince the Sudanese parties to compromise and strike a deal.
(ST)