Africa

September 7, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The transitional government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) initialled the matrix of the implementation of the peace agreement they reached on 31 August.

The initial signing ceremony which took place on Monday at the venue of the peace talks in Juba was attended by representatives of both sides and the mediation team.

In statements after the event, Tut Gatluak the chief mediator said that the South Sudanese government will invite the Sudanese government, represented by the Sovereign Council and the Council of Ministers, heads of state and government of the IGAD, representatives of the United Nations, Friends of Sudan group, Arab and African countries to attend the final signing ceremony of the peace agreement.

Gatluak who is also the South Sudanese presidential adviser for security affairs recalled that achieving peace in Sudan is closely linked to the security and stability of South Sudan.

He encouraged the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North Abdel Aziz al-Hilu to resume peace talks with the Sudanese government and called on the holdout rebel leader Abdel Wahid al-Nur to join the ongoing efforts to bring peace in Sudan.

Following a meeting of President Salva Kiir with the member of the Sovereign Council Shams al-Din Kabbashi, Gatluak said that, on Sunday, that the final signing of the peace agreement between the Sudanese parties will take place in Juba on 2nd October.

(ST)

September 7, 2020 (ASMARA) - Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sovereign Council and President Isaias Afwerki discussed the implementation of a bilateral security agreement between the two countries.

Al-Burhan travelled to Asmara for a one-day working visit where he was received by Afwerki before to hold a meeting on bilateral matters.

"Eritrea and Sudan have agreed on concrete measures that will be taken to implement comprehensive bilateral agreements reached in the economic, trade, security and military sectors as well as mechanisms and timelines for their commencement," said the Eritrean information ministry after the visit.

The two parties further "discussed regional issues of common concern, especially frameworks for cooperation in the security field," said the Sovereign Council in a quoting Sudanese Chargé d'Affairs in Asmara Mahmoud Hamza.

The meeting was attended by Osman Saleh Eritrean Foreign Minister, Yemane Gebreab Presidential Adviser.

For his part, al-Burhan was accompanied by Jamal Abdel Majid Director of the General Intelligence Service, and Yasir Mohamed Osman Head of the Military Intelligence.

Before to return to Khartoum, al-Burhan visited agricultural development projects around Mislam and Logo dams.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese Communist Party and the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu agreed to work together to ensure religious diversity through the inclusion of fundamental principles in the constitution of Sudan that should not be amended under any circumstances.

Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) secretary-general Mohamed Mukhtar al-Khatib (Al-Sudani)

The two parties agreed on a political declaration after a series of meeting that took place between them in the Ethiopian capital, on Saturday and Sunday. The discussions touched issues related to democracy, nationalities and diversity in Sudan.

"The constitution or the law must not violate the freedoms and rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international and regional covenants. Any law issued in contravention of this declaration and charters shall be null and unconstitutional," read the joint declaration.

"The human rights principles included in these charters are fundamental principles in the constitution of Sudan, and it not is allowed to violate, amend, or skip them under any pretext," it added.

The declaration comes after an agreement between the prime minister Abdallah Hamdok and al-Hilu to hold consultative discussions on the separation of religion and the state before to resume formal peace talks.

The agreement prohibits the establishment of any political party in the country on a religious basis. Also, it says that the state should recognizes and respects the religious diversity and ensures peaceful coexistence, equality and tolerance.

The Communist Party and the SPLM-N al-Hilu pledged to work together to protect the Sudanese people's right to change and freedom and to implement the revolution's slogan of "freedom, peace and justice."

The Mohamed Mukhtar al-Khatib, Political secretary of the Sudanese Communist Party his party delegation while the SPLM-N delegation was chaired by al-Hilu.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (JUBA) - The South Sudanese mediation announced that the final peace agreement between the Sudanese transitional government and the armed groups will be signed on 2 October in Juba.

"The signing of the final peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Front will take place on the second of October in Juba," said the chief mediator Tut Galtuak on Sunday.

Galtuak expected that the two parties will sign the implementation matrix on Monday, in preparation for the final signing of the peace agreement.

The Sudanese parties initialled the one-year negotiated agreement on 31 August.

Following what, they formed a committee to set up the implementation matrix.

There were unconfirmed reports that the final signing ceremony will be in Khartoum with a popular ceremony.

(ST)

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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