Sudanese Government, SRF extend peace talks to February
December 14, 2019 (JUBA) – The Transitional government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) agreed signed an agreement on Saturday to extend a goodwill agreement for two months.
On September 11, the two parties signed a goodwill agreement including confidence-building measures and a pledge to sign a final peace agreement before 14 December.
Tut Gatluak, the chief mediator and South Sudanese presidential adviser told reporters in Juba that the government and the RSF agreed to extend negotiations until next February to allows more time for the discussions on the outstanding issues.
For his part, Mohamed Hassan Eltaishi indicated that the agreement provides to extend the negotiations until 14 February 2020.
“The extension of the Juba Protocol was dictated by objective conditions,” said El-Taishi, a member of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council and spokesman for the government negotiating delegation.
Also, he expected that a peace agreement to be signed before the end of the period saying there are no major disagreements.
He stressed that the current Sudanese peace negotiations differ from all previous attempts and that they have no red lines.
The government agreed to create several tracks to discuss the issues raised by the armed groups from Darfur, the Two Areas, eastern and central Sudan.
For the two states of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, the government had to establish two tracks, due to the refusal of the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu to join the negotiating table in presence of the SPLM-N led by Malik Agar.
The Constitutional Declaration has given the transitional government a six month period to strike a peace deal with the armed groups.
The Troika countries in a recent statement called on the parties to show a spirit of cooperation, pragmatism, and realism. Further, they called on the parties to negotiate without precondition.
The parties are expected to suspend the talks within a week, due to the holidays of Christmas and the end of the year.
(ST)