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Thursday, 19 April 2018
 

Sudan Rejects Negotiating with SPLM-N Agar

KHARTOUM - (Sudan Tribune) A member of the government negotiating team said they wouldn’t negotiate with a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North

(SPLM-N) that has no ability to implement what will be agreed upon.
The SPLM-N is now divided into two factions: one in the Nuba Mountains led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu and the other in the White Nile State led by Malik Agar.
Abdel-Rahman Abu Median, a member of the government negotiating team, in statements to the Sudanese Media Center (SMC), expressed doubts about the ability of the SPLM-N Agar to hold a general conference for its members next October saying "Agar has no influence on the ground".
"The government delegation does not accept negotiating with any group from the SPLM-N that does not have the ability to implement what is agreed in the negotiating on the grounds," he said.
He underscored that the government negotiating position is “clear and unified”, expressing readiness to resume negotiations at any time.
The mediators met the two factions last August, but they didn’t fix a clear position on the matter, while the facilitators from the Troika countries and the European Union also didn’t determine a unified position over the matter.
Abu Median added the African mediation has informed the SPLM-N factions that talks would resume on the basis of what has been reached in the previous rounds of negotiations.
Mahmoud Kan, the AU representative in Khartoum, told the SMC last week that the SPLM-N Al-Hillu in a recent meeting with the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) explained its position on the self-determination reiterating its commitment to the unity of Sudan.
The SPLM-N Al-Hillu wants “a Sudan united on the basis of the Movement’s conditions related to the recognition of religious rights and particularities of the people in the Two Areas, the rights of people in the Two Areas (for developments) and not to apply the Islamic law on Christians in the two Areas,” said the African Union official.