No date has been set to resume Darfur talks: official
July 9, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Presidential Envoy for Diplomatic Contact and Negotiation for Darfur Amin Hassan Omer said no date has been fixed to resume Darfur peace talks.
He pointed out that the meeting discussed ways to resume talks on the Roadmap Agreement as well as integrating the various initiatives including the German efforts to accelerate resumption of the negotiations.
Omer expected the peace talks would be resumed after the AUHIP completes its consultations with all parties.
The Roadmap agreement was mediated by the AUHIP and signed by the government in March 2016 and the opposition alliance Sudan Call in August 2016. But, it was not implemented following the parties’ failure to reach a humanitarian cessation of hostilities paving the way for peace negotiations
Last April, delegations representing the Government of Sudan, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi ended two-day discussions in Berlin without signing a pre-negotiation agreement.
The two sides say willing for a negotiated settlement but failed to agree on how to proceed. The government put on the negotiating table the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), but the armed groups say they want a new process on new bases, not this framework text signed in July 2011 with other former rebel groups.
The holdout groups including the JEM and SLM-MM refused to sign the DDPD in July 2011 and called to open the framework agreement for talks.
Other groups like the Sudan Liberation Movement – Abdel Wahid (SLM-AW) have declined to join the process and rejected its outcome.
The AUHIP led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki proposed a holistic process to end the armed conflicts and produce political reforms in Sudan.
During the year 2015-2016, talks between the government and the SLM-MM and JEM failed to reach a tangible result despite international efforts to bring together the opposition groups and to narrow the gaps between them and the government.
Germany and the AUHIP signed a deal to facilitate the two-track process for a comprehensive peace agreement in Sudan. Berlin already organised a number of meeting in this respect.
Last February, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (PSC) urged the AUHIP to make progress in the resolution of Darfur conflict during the upcoming three months.
The Sudanese army has been fighting a group of armed movements in Darfur since 2003. UN agencies estimate that over 300,000 people were killed in the conflict and over 2.5 million were displaced.
(ST)