British minister congratulates Khartoum for South Sudan governance agreement
August 7, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – British Minister of State for Africa Tuesday Harriett Baldwin congratulated Sudan for the tireless efforts to bring the South Sudanese parties to sign an agreement on the outstanding issues of governance and power-sharing
Baldwin is in a three-day visit to Sudan for talks on bilateral relations in an effort to consolidate relations with its former colony in East African and develop economic relations.
Her visit started 24-hours after the signing of the toughly negotiated agreement on the outstanding issues of governance, the deal which was the last pending chapter of the 2015 peace agreement paves the way for the end of a 5-year civil war in South Sudan.
After a meeting with the Sudanese First Vice-President and Prime Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh, Baldwin released a twit saying she congratulated the Sudanese officials for their efforts over the deal.
“In Khartoum, Sudan, to thank Prime Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh & Foreign Minister Dirdiri (Mohamed Ahmed) for hard work with South Sudan’s conflicting parties to sign (the) “Agreement on outstanding issues of governance” in the presence of regional heads of state on August 5th,” she said.
For his part, the Sudanese foreign ministry in a statement released after the meeting said El-Dirdeiry stressed that the Sudanese mediation under the leadership of President Omer al-Bashir has been backed by the whole region.
Al-Bashir has been entrusted by the IGAD body to lead the mediation. The process was supposed to move to Kenya but the President Uhuru Kenyatta preferred that talks continue in Khartoum as the parties have only to discuss the implementation matrix.
Britain which one of the Troika countries that facilitate the IGAD-brokered talks for peace in South Sudan does not yet issue a statement on the agreement between the South Sudanese parties.
El-Dirdeiry who is also the chief mediator for the Khartoum round of talks told Baldwin about the need for international support for the process.
The visiting British minister told reporters that her meeting with Saleh also discussed the situation in Darfur region as she will fly to El-Fasher on Wednesday to inspect the humanitarian situation there.
(ST)