Sudan’s breakaway party to stay in government

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Oct 14 (Reuters) – The party of a top Sudanese presidential aide dismissed last week has reached a deal with the ruling party to stay in government, a minister said on Thursday.

The breakaway Umma party splintered last Wednesday after President Omar Hassan al-Bashir fired its leader Mubarak al-Fadil al-Mahdi [photo].

The party, which held about nine ministerial and senior posts as well as 25 lesser positions, split over whether to stay allied to the government after the dismissal.

“Today we reached an agreement with the (ruling) National Congress party … to stay in the government,” Tourism Minister Abdel Jelil al-Basha told Reuters.

Analysts say the government is weakened and divided over how to respond to international demands it stop the conflict in the remote western Darfur region.

The violence has driven more than 1.5 million people from their homes and created what the United Nations calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Basha said the Umma party, which joined the government two years ago, would be able to appoint all its representatives to senior posts.

Government officials said Mahdi was dismissed over differences of opinion.

But Mahdi said he was forced out because he objected to the dominance of decision-making by a small group, which included the powerful First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha.

The government is in talks to woo back exiled opposition parties in Cairo.

Analysts said it may want a reconciliation with Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan’s last democratically elected leader, who was overthrown by Bashir in a 1989 bloodless coup.