Southern leader’s decision to return to field “unsound”, minister

BBC Monitoring Middle East

By Akhbar al- Yawm Sudanese newspaper

The secretary-general of the [ruling] National Congress [NC], Prof Ibrahim Ahmad Umar, said he had reservations on what the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement [SPLM] – United faction, Lam Akol, said accusing the government of breaking the terms of the agreement signed in the town of Fashoda [in 1997] by denying him permission to visit his troops in the Upper Nile region.

In a statement to the press yesterday, Prof Umar said : Until now, we are still trying to understand the real meaning of Akol’s statement [Passage omitted]

On the other hand, the minister of energy and head of the secretariat of southern affairs at the NC, Ali Tamim Fartak, said Dr Lam Akol’s decision to return to the field was regrettable and unsound, at a time when people were discussing peace and talks in Naivasha [west of Nairobi] were gaining speed towards the signing of an agreement which would put an end to the war .

The minister pointed out that Dr Lam Akol’s return to the field, reported by newspapers, would make him look as someone who was swimming against the present current.