Sudan’s FM meets with UN experts on South Sudan
July 26, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s foreign ministry on Sunday said it offered advice to the UN panel of experts on South Sudan pertaining to ways for resolving the 19-month conflict in the troubled new state.
Peace talks collapsed on 6 March when the two principal leaders could not agree on almost all the outstanding issues on governance, security arrangements, reforms, power sharing and accountability and justice, reparation and reconciliation.
The spokesperson for Sudan’s foreign ministry, Ali al-Sadiq, said the foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, received on Sunday a delegation from the UN panel of experts on South Sudan within the framework of a regional tour regarding the situation in the newborn state.
He pointed the delegation aims to hold consultations with the government of South Sudan, opposition and stakeholders in the newborn state besides the neighbouring countries including Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan.
The 5-member UN panel of experts on South Sudan has been created last May as a result of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2206. Its primary task is to support the Security Council Committee for South Sudan in carrying out its mandate.
According to al-Sadiq, the delegation told Ghandour that they came to Sudan to listen to Khartoum’s insights and thoughts about the crisis in South Sudan, stressing importance of the vital and effective role played by Sudan in the issue.
Ghandour, for his part, welcomed the delegation and emphasized that Sudan is ready to cooperate with any regional or international body to reach a settlement for the situation in South Sudan.
He pointed that the UN panel needs to coordinate efforts with African Union (AU) teams including those headed by the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and former South African president, Thabo Mbeki.
Ghandour also advised the delegation on how to deal with the situation in South Sudan particularly on issues pertaining to the various ethnic and cultural components of the society besides ways for addressing the humanitarian situation in order to agree on power-sharing foundations to end the conflict.
On Saturday, the East African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), unveiled its latest reviewed proposal for a compromise between warring parties so as to end the civil war in South Sudan.
(ST)