Africa

September 6, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sovereign Council held a meeting with the National Program Group (NPG), which is made up of several groups previously allied with the former regime.

Tijani al-Sissi (SUNA)

The meeting which took place at the headquarters of the Sudanese army raised widespread reactions in social media, given that the group participated in the regime of the ousted president, Omer al-Bashir until his collapse in April 2019.

The National Programme Group (NPG) consists of the Sudan Renaissance Alliance headed by Tijani al-Sissi, former head of the Darfur Transitional Authority, the Popular Congress Party, the Democratic Unionist Party faction of Ahmed Bilal, the Justice Party led by Bechara Aru, the Third Way group, and the Union of Independent Representatives, a group of former MPs in the dissolved parliament, headed by Abu al-Gasim Burtom.

Following the meeting, a spokesman of the Sudanese army issued a statement saying that al-Burhan was briefed about the NPG objectives which call for concerted national efforts to face the serious challenges that Sudan is going through internally, externally, economically and security.

The statement quoted al-Sissi as saying that the way out of these challenges is the agreement of all political forces on a national programme for the transitional period and the development of a permanent constitution for the country.

Al-Sissi further stressed the need not to focus on who governs Sudan, but the constitution that governs it.

"Al-Burhan valued the efforts made by the NPG forces to serve the supreme national interests and stressed the importance of national cohesion," he added.

According to al-Bashir's former partner, al-Burhan further called to hold a workshop for all components of the political forces to develop visions to achieve the goals of the glorious December revolution.

Aru, a former information minister in Bashir's government from Darfur region, said on his Facebook page that al-Burhan had received a copy of their programme.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (ZALINGEI) - Hundreds of supporters of the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel Wahid Mohamed (SLM-AW) demonstrated in Zalingei, Central Darfur state, on Sunday, against the peace agreement initialled recently in Juba.

Al-Nur refused to join the peace process brokered by the South Sudanese government saying the parties are negotiating a power-sharing deal that does not address the root causes of the conflict.

Instead, he proposed to hold a peace conference inside Sudan with the participation of all political and civil forces and armed movements, but he did not provide details of his initiative so far.

“Hundreds of al-Nur's supporters in Al-Hamidiyah camp for displaced people in Zalingei demonstrated against the peace agreement, shouting slogans describing it as a compromise that did not do justice to the victims of the war.”

It is noteworthy that the city of Zalingei is the birthplace of Abdel Wahid al-Nur.

The demonstrators held banners saying that the rights of victims and displaced persons are not negotiable, also they chanted slogans describing the peace agreement as bargaining with the rights of IDPs and refugees and as a provocation against them.

The Sudanese government says it is actively seeking to persuade the exiled rebel leader to engage in negotiations but they failed until now.

On Saturday, Faisal Mohamed Saleh Information Minister told Sky News Arabia that al-Nur did not set any conditions for negotiation.

"The condition he had been repeating for a long time is that he does not want to negotiate outside Sudan," Saleh added.

Saleh went further to say that the government welcomes the idea, and is willing to provide all the guarantees that he, the SLM-AW leadership and its negotiating delegation need until to reach Khartoum and begin peace talks inside Sudan.

(ST)

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