Sudan approves final document on national dialogue

Sudan's national dialogue conference on Monday approved a final document following deliberations that lasted about a year.

Representatives of the political parties, armed groups and civil society organizations signed the document before it was handed to the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who chaired the concluding session in Khartoum.

The presidents of Egypt, Mauritania, Uganda and Chad attended the closing session.

The final document, covering principles of rule, public freedoms, identity, peace, unity, economy and external relations, will serve as the basis of the country's permanent constitution.

In January 2014, al-Bashir declared an initiative calling on the opposition parties and the armed groups to join a national dialogue to end the country's crises.

The sessions of the dialogue kicked off in October 2015 in a bid to resolve the country's political and social issues, with the participation of a number of Sudanese political parties, civil society organizations and some Darfur armed groups.

However, major political parties and armed movements refused to participate in the conference, including the Revolutionary Front Alliance, which brings together the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector and major Darfur armed movements.

Darfur armed groups and the SPLM/northern sector insist that a preparatory conference should be held, according to decisions of the African Union Peace and Security Council and the United Nations 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