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Sudan’s military council welcomes Ethiopian mediation

Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed (L) shakes hand with Sudan's TMC leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on 7 June 2019 (SUNA photo)
Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed (L) shakes hand with Sudan’s TMC leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on 7 June 2019 (SUNA photo)

June 8, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Transitional Military Council (TMC) Saturday welcomed the Ethiopian mediation, reiterating it was open to negotiating a satisfactory solution.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in Khartoum on Friday where he held with the Sudanese stakeholders including the TMC, the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) in an attempt to narrow the gaps between the two parties over the transitional institutions.

In a statement released 24 hours after the one-day visit, the Council on Saturday thanked the Ethiopian government for its “generous initiative” and its keenness to bring the views closer together.

“The military council, which appreciates this initiative, stresses its openness and keenness to negotiate to reach satisfactory understandings leading to national consensus (…), leading to the establishment of a democratic transformation (…) and the peaceful alternation of power in the country.”

Abiy was in Khartoum at the request of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, which asked him as head of the IGAD regional block to initiate mediation to ensure the handover of power to civilian-led authority after suspending Sudan’s membership in the African Union.

Opposition sources say the Ethiopian Prime Minister left behind one of his advisers to continue contacts with the two sides and he pledged to return again if there was any breakthrough in the talks.

Abiy reportedly put forward a proposal to deal with the sticking point related to the chairmanship and the composition of the Sovereign Council. He proposed a rotating presidency and to compose it of eight civilians and seven militaries.

The opposition FFC demanded that a number of confidence-building measures are taken by TMC the before embarking on talks through the Ethiopian mediator.

These measures include the TMC acknowledgement of its responsibility for the killing of peaceful protesters at the protest site on 3 June, the formation of an international committee to investigate the bloody raid, and release of political prisoners and prisoners of war, ensuring public freedoms and press freedom, withdrawing military forces deployed in the streets and lifting the ban on Internet service before talking engaging in the political process.

(ST)

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