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Sudan opposition alliance to sign AU-proposed road-map to end war

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

A major opposition alliance in Sudan on Monday declared its agreement on an African Union (AU)-proposed road-map to end war in the country.

The opposition Sudan Call, an alliance bringing together Sudanese armed groups and opposition parties, said it would sign the road-map, proposed last March by the AU.

"We will sign the road-map during a meeting between the leaders of the parties and the AU mediator Thabo Mbeki, to be convened soon in Addis Ababa or Johannesburg," Omer Al-Digair, head of the Sudanese Congress Party, a major party in the opposition alliance, said at a press conference in Khartoum, without giving a specific date for the meeting.

"The matter depends on the mediator's acceptance of our demands, including the call for a preparatory meeting in Addis Ababa," he added.

Mariam Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, Deputy Chairperson of the opposition National Umma Party, for her part, said "there will be nothing to prevent us from signing the road-map after agreeing on our demands."

Last March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP) proposed a road-map agreement for the Sudanese rivals, stipulating arrangements related to cease-fire at South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur regions, entering a peace process and involving the armed movements in the national dialogue currently convened in Khartoum.

The Sudanese government unilaterally signed the road-map agreement, while the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector, the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLA)/Minni Minnawi faction and the opposition National Umma Party refused to sign the deal.

The Darfur armed groups and the SPLM/northern sector insist that a preparatory conference should be held, according to decisions by the AU Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council, to bring together all the Sudanese political forces to agree on procedures to initiate an equitable dialogue with the government, a demand that the Sudanese government rejects. Endit