Sudan urges UK to take tougher stance against holdout rebels
May 11, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour has called on the United Kingdom to take a tougher stance against rebel groups who refused to sign the Roadmap Agreement brokered by the African Union mediation.
According to a press statement extended to Sudan Tribune, the foreign ministry said that Ghandour and Cannell agreed that the roadmap agreement represent an appropriate framework to achieve peace and stability in Sudan.
Last March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and the Sudanese government signed a framework agreement calling to stop war in Blue Nile, Darfur, and South Kordofan and to engage in the national dialogue process.
However, the opposition groups, Justice and Equality Movement, National Umma Party (NUP), Sudan People’s Liberation Movement -North (SPLM-N), and Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) refused the roadmap saying it acknowledges a government controlled dialogue conference and would lead to reproduce the regime.
NATIONAL DIALOGUE
Meanwhile, the British envoy has promised to exert efforts to convince Sudan’s holdout opposition to participate in the national dialogue.
Cannell, who met the secretary general of the national dialogue Hashim Ali Salem on Wednesday, was briefed on the latest stages of the dialogue conference and the political parties, armed groups and national figures participating in it.
Salem told reporters following the meeting that the British envoy stressed his country’s strong support for the dialogue and promised to lead efforts to convince the holdout opposition to join the process.
The national dialogue conference was inaugurated in Khartoum on October 10 th, 2015 amid large boycott from the major political and armed opposition.
Hold out opposition refuse to take part in the conference before the creation of a conducive environment and the implementation of specific confidence-building measures.
(ST)