Sudan’s Bashir hopes dialogue conference to produce unified national vision

October 26, 2015 (KHARTOUM) -Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir has expressed hope that the national dialogue conference can come up with a consensus on a unified vision to formulate the future according to a national will.

Bashir, who was addressing the meeting of the National Council for Strategic Planning (NCSP) on Monday, said the meeting comes at a time when the country is witnessing the works of the dialogue conference, pointing the conference is expected to lead to a national vision to formulate Sudan’s future “according to our national will and without dictation or tutelage of any party”.

“We recognize that we should formulate our future while the region is welling up with foreign strategies which seek to establish a new reality that serves their interests rather than the interests of the countries of the region,” he added.

He said the developments in the region represent a challenge for the national dialogue because it would affect the state not the government or a particular political party, pointing to the attempts to weaken and fragment the Arab world.

The government-led national dialogue conference was inaugurated in Khartoum on October 10th amid large boycott from the major political and armed opposition.

Bashir stressed the need to activate the general secretariat of the strategic planning in order to serve as the strategic mind for the state, calling for completing the arrangements to develop the strategy so as to become a benchmark for national performance.

It is noteworthy that the membership of the NCSP includes the president and his two deputies and assistants, federal and state ministers, undersecretaries of federal ministries, states governors, civil society organizations, leaders of the political parties and national figures.

TRIBAL CONFLICTS

Meanwhile, press reports on Monday said the report of the NCSP has mentioned the tribal conflicts which have recently spread on a wide scale.

According to the report, most of the tribal conflicts which occurred in 2014 were in the states of East Darfur, West and South Kordofan and the White Nile.

It pointed that 754 people have been killed in those conflicts, saying that 537 of them were killed in the clashes between Ma’alia and Rizeigat tribes in East Darfur state while 11 others were killed in Central Darfur state.

The report said that 867 people have been killed in 2013, noting that 595 of them were killed in clashes between Beni Hussein and some Arab tribes while 54 others were killed in the clashes between Misseriya and Salamat tribes in Central Darfur.

According to the report, this indicates an increase in the number of tribal clashes and human losses compared to 2012 in which 59 people only were killed in clashes between Misseriya and Rizeigat tribes.

(ST)