Sudan’s FCC groups boycott National Dialogue General Assembly

August 6, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – In an unexpected development, the opposition Future Forces of Change (FFC) Saturday boycotted the National Dialogue General Assembly to protest the organizers’ refusal to give them the opportunity to address the consultative meeting.

The FFC which gathers some Islamist groups that splinted from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) are not part of the government sponsored dialogue but they held a series of meetings facilitated by the African Union mediation to prepare them to join a holistic process.

In a statement released Saturday evening, the alliance said they accepted to attend the General Assembly meeting after the emergence of new positive developments in support of an inclusive process.

“The Future Forces of Change agreed to attend the General Assembly with the understanding that it will have an opportunity to address the meeting to explain its position (…) and to express its perception on how to move the dialogue process forward”.

Especially since the written invitation extended to the FFC has provided that the meeting is” a continuation of consultations over the upcoming period programme of the dialogue National,” the group further stressed.

The FFC went to say they reached some organizers to confirm that they would be allowed to address the meeting as it was said in the invitation.

“But three hours before the beginning of the meeting they informed us that we can not address the meeting,” the group said.

So, the alliance decided not to attend the General Assembly “because it is not acceptable to attend a consultative meeting that will last for long hours without having the opportunity to speak”.

However, the coalition reiterated its commitment to work with all the political forces including the governing parties and the 7+7 mechanism to achieve peace and democratic reforms.

The General Assembly will hold its next meeting next October to adopt the final resolution of the internal dialogue process.

The FFC groups, are National Forces Alliance (NFA), National Forces of Change (NFC) and National Unity Parties (NUPs). Some members of these groups, like Reform Now Movement (RNM) and Just Peace Forum (JFM), were part of the national dialogue process.

(ST)