Sudan’s vice president in Saudi for peace talks with northern opposition

RIYADH, Dec 4 (AFP) — Sundan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha arrived in Saudi Arabia for peace talks with northern opposition leader Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, according to a Sudanese diplomatic source in the Saudi capital.

The meeting between Osman and Mirghani, who heads the Democratic Unionist Party, will take place in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Khartoum government is in the last round of peace talks with the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) headed by John Garang.

The main northern opposition groups, which include Mirghani’s party and the Umma Party headed by Sadeq al-Mahdi, have not been party to the talks aimed at ending the country’s 20-year civil war.

The SPLA has sought to defend the rights of animists and Christians in the south against successive Arab and Muslim governments in the north.

Umma and other northern opposition groups joined the SPLA in 1995 in Eritrea in taking up arms against Khartoum, but their unity lasted only a few months.