Sudan’s donor conference to take place next June
February 18, 2020 (KHARTOUM) – In a meeting held in Stockholm on Tuesday, the Friends of Sudan (FOS) renewed their pledge to provide substantial financial and economic support to Hamdok’s transitional government and agreed to delay the donor meeting to next June.
During their last meeting of December 2019, the Friends of Sudan agreed that the donor conference should be held in April. However, later on, the host country Kuwait requested to delay it to after Ramadan which take place in May 2020.
In a statement released after a meeting held in the Swedish capital, the FOS agreed to hold a preparatory meeting for the donor meeting in Paris next April.
“They renewed their commitment to take part in a donor conference by the first half of June 2020 and agreed that the details of the conference would be communicated shortly,” further said the statement.
Initially, Sudan requested to hold the donor meeting at the beginning of the year, in January or February 2020. However, the group members said that April is better to allow the needed time for good preparation and international mobilization for a successful conference.
Many participants confirmed their recent increase of support to Sudan, said the statement.
“A range of participants also informed of their commitment and preparation of additional substantial financial support to be provided in line with the Transitional Government’s priorities, especially the social impact mitigation programme, being critical for sustainable economic reform”.
“The group agreed on the need to frontload also longer-term support to the transition and committed to support reforms,” further said.
On the peace process, the meeting he called on parties to the ongoing peace process in Juba to negotiate in good faith and make the needed compromises in the interest of peace.
The FOS “emphasized that the peace negotiations should not delay the formation of the Transitional Legislative Council and the appointment of civilian governors and welcomed the Government of Sudan’s recent announcement that these will be formed shortly”.
The parties have just agreed to extend for the second time the deadline for the signing of a peace agreement, while the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) groups threaten to stop the talks if the governors and the parliament members are appointed before the signing of a peace agreement.
They say want to ensure that they are fairly represented at the two levels.
For its part, the SPLM-N of Abdel Aziz al-Hilu says the peace process should include the secular state and the self-determination, a matter that the government says should be discussed at the constitutional conference.
Also, the Group welcomed Sudan’s recent announcement of the intent to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court.
In addition to Sudan, the meeting was attended by African Development Bank, Canada, Egypt, European Union, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, The Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States, the World Bank.
(ST)