Democratic Block, military leaders agree to draft new political deal: JEM leader

January 19, 2023 (NYALA) – Gibril Ibrahim, Head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and deputy head of the Democratic Bloc said on Thursday they agreed with the military leaders to forge a new political agreement to replace the framework agreement.

Speaking in a public meeting in the capital of South Darfur Nyala, Gibril said that their coalition held a meeting on January 18, with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan head of the Sovereign Council and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to discuss ways to narrow the gaps between them and the signatories of the framework agreement.

“The meeting agreed to work collectively in order to reach a new agreement that removes all the shortcomings of the framework agreement,” he said, adding that “the next agreement will be better than the current one.”

Gibril pointed out that the signatories from the military and civilians are convinced that the framework agreement in its current form would not achieve consensus among all parties. He stressed that this situation led them to reach out to the holdout groups and decided to form joint committees.

“We hope that this dialogue will lead to a new political agreement that includes everyone,” he stressed.

Al-Burhan and Hemetti held several meetings with the Democratic Bloc leaders to persuade the signatories of the Juba peace agreement to join the political process.

The military leaders who propose themselves as facilitators held also meetings gathering delegations from the Bloc and the signatories of the framework agreement and proposed to form a joint committee to reach a common ground between both sides.

The parties to the framework agreement say they only want the JEM of Gibril Ibrahim and the SLM of Minni Minnawi. Also, they say can reach a common ground with the two groups on the review of the peace agreement.

For their part, Ibrahim and Minnawi call to include the whole Democratic Bloc and insist more on the need to associate them in the formation of the technocratic civilian transitional government which should be done by the Forces for Freedom and Change alone.

In his speech, the JEM leader sharply criticized the framework agreement saying it intends to politicise the judiciary and prosecution and form a partisan police under the name of “internal security” to establish partisan militias to suppress dissent.

Also, he accused “some small political groups” of seeking to impose their agenda and control political decisions.

He went on to say that these political groups resisted the peace agreement because it changed the balance of power in the country.

“One of the reasons for our difference with the FFC is that they want to review the peace agreement and we reject this step and return the country to war again,” he said.

He underscored they reject the framework agreement because it was negotiated behind closed doors under foreign pressures. In addition, he told the crowd that they refuse it because it restricts the basis of governance and decision to the hands of a limited number of people, as he said.

He further slammed what he called “foreign pressures” on the Sudanese parties to sign the framework agreement and stressed it was “unacceptable”.

This is the first visit of the former rebel leader and current finance minister to Nyala since the signing of the Juba peace agreement in October 2020.

His group organized a huge reception for him at the airport and across the capital of South Darfur.

The visit is part of a national tour he already launched last December to mobilize support for JEM as they plan not to limit their participation in the election to the Darfur region.

(ST)