Sudan’s Bashir says that negotiations with SPLM-N will continue despite recent attacks
May 1, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir underscored his government’s desire to pursue peace with the rebels of the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) despite their recent offensive in north and south Kordofan states.
At a meeting with SPLM-Peace Sector leader Daniel Kodi, Bashir emphasized that peace is a strategic choice for Khartoum and declared that the talks with SPLM-N will continue.
Kodi was quoted by Sudan official news agency (SUNA) as saying that he agreed with Bashir on the need to seek peace and revealed that he discussed the existence of South Sudan’s SPLA in East Darfur as well as in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Last weekend SPLM-N acting as part of Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) launched several attacks most notably on North Kordofan town of Umm Rawaba which they briefly occupied before withdrawing.
The offensive came at the heels of last week’s first round of talks between Khartoum and SPLM-N since 2011 in Ethiopia which failed to yield any breakthroughs.
It was Bashir swiftly scrapped a June 2011 framework agreement signed by his aide Nafie Ali Nafie with SPLM-N and has insisted that his government will deal militarily with the rebel movement.
But this year Sudanese officials announced a change in position and agreed to sit down with the SPLM-N but only on the basis of the protocols related to Blue Nile and South Kordofan in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
Despite Khartoum’s consistent accusations to South Sudan in the past of backing SPLM-N and the SRF, the Sudanese government this time said that Juba had no role in the recent wave of attacks by the rebels.
(ST)