ScOP leader travels to Addis Ababa for Sudan Call meeting
June 16, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) travelled Thursday morning to the Ethiopian capital to take part in meetings of the opposition groups and the international envoys for Sudan over the Roadmap Agreement.
Three armed groups including the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) ,Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and the National Umma Party (NUP) last March refused a plan for peace brokered by the African Union chief mediator Thabo Mbeki, saying it would reproduce the regime.
The holdout groups say they reject the roadmap because, among others, it excludes their allies in the opposition and because they want an inclusive process. Nonetheless, they accept to continue discussions over the peace plan with the African mediation and the international facilitators.
However, their allies of the left parties, gathered in the National Consensus Forces (NCF) declined to participate in such meetings over the peace negotiations, saying they are not concerned by the dialogue with the regime.
Nonetheless, a NCF member, the SCoP, in the early morning of Thursday released a statement saying that its leader Omer al-Digair has just travelled to Addis Ababa to participate in a consultative meeting of the Sudan Call forces to be held on Thursday evening.
The SCoP Spokesperson, Mohamed Hassan Arabi expressed hope that “the meeting would be an addition to the national struggle against the regime of the National Congress Party (NCP)”.
Arabi further called on the opposition groups to rise to the challenges facing the country, and to unify their efforts to resist totalitarianism and defeat it, rather than wasting time on marginal disputes.
He further stressed that the SCoP is keen to develop the Sudan Call alliance, because it is the most comprehensive frame to coordinate the action of the opposition groups and unite it to achieve change, and face the challenges of the transitional period in the post NCP regime.
The SCoP official said the consultations will discuss the Sudan Call’s internal issues particularly the implementation of the decisions of Paris meeting and the local and international political developments.
He further stressed that the meeting has nothing to do with the African Union mediation, as it was rumoured that the opposition will sign the Roadmap Agreement.
Last April, the Sudan Call groups met in the French capital Paris where they reiterated their rejection of the roadmap and expressed readiness for a comprehensive political solution that leads to a just peace, and a full democratic transformation in the Sudan.
They also discussed an organizational structure including a presidential coordination council comprised of ten members who equally represent the five components of the alliance.
But the NCF said they want only a coordination committee open for any force that want to join their peaceful struggle for a regime change in Sudan.
(ST)