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Sudan Tribune

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Sudan opposition sets up negotiating team, calls to participate in AU meeting

Sudanese demonstrators outside the army headquarters on Thursday 25, 2019 (AFP photo)
Sudanese demonstrators outside the army headquarters on Thursday 25, 2019 (AFP photo)

April 27, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The opposition Freedom and Change forces have appointed their negotiating team with the military council amid calls to participate in the upcoming meeting of the African Union on Sudan by the end of April.

Following an agreement reached on Wednesday, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) has acknowledged the Freedom and Change forces as its sole interlocutor to discuss the formation of the transitional institution in Sudan.

Also, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) will hold a meeting on 30 April to discuss the situation in Sudan as it has given the TMC 15 days to transfer power to civilian authority. The meeting is expected to approve a recommendation made by African leaders recently to extend the two-week ultimatum to three months.

Omer al-Digair, the leader of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) told Sudan Tribune on Friday that the opposition forces appointed its committee and now ready for the resumption of negotiations with the army over the transitional period institutions.

The delegation includes “Ali al-Sanhouri, Mariam al-Mahdi, Mohamed Nagi al-Asam, Ayman Khalid Haydar al-Safi and himself,” he said.

The talks are expected to begin very soon.

The main disagreement between the two sides is about the transitional presidency as the army wants to keep its role on the head of the state while the opposition says it should be a civilian authority. However, the Freedom and Change forces do not exclude the participation of the army.

For the other institutions: the transitional government and parliament, the military council say they do not want to take part in it.

Yasir Arman, Sudan Call’s external relations official said the opposition should take part in the PSC meeting to explain their position, pointing they are the partner of the military council.

Arman suggested that the PSC forthcoming decision about the three-month extension should include a roadmap for Sudanese to achieve the democratic transition.

He pointed out that this roadmap should include, among others, some steps to ensure a real democratic transition in Sudan.

“In three months, a civilian government must be formed with clear constitutional powers,” he said before to stress that “This government should not be an extension of military rule”.

The deputy head of the SPLM-N Agar added that the African plan should provide that Sudanese should reach a comprehensive peace in no more than six months, open humanitarian access to civilians in the conflict zone, and to release all detained members of the armed groups, as part of the confidence-building measures.

The roadmap, according to Arman, should also include a “constitutional conference to resolve the issue of how Sudan should be governed at the end of the transitional period”, and to hold internationally monitored free elections at the end of the period.

(ST)

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