Sudan Appeal in Paris: Discuss peace process, without Khartoum

Members of the Sudan Appeal will discuss the future of the peace process in Sudan during a meeting in Paris upcoming Sunday. A leader denied a Sudanese Minister's announcement that they will hold informative meetings with the government's delegation.

Minni Arko Minawi, the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM) told Radio Dabanga that the meeting this Sunday will be attended by the Sudan Appeal members, the National Consensus Forces (NCF) headed by Farouq Abu Eisa, the Future Forces for Change (FFC, a coalition of rightist opposition parties) led by Ghazi Salahuldin, and several individual observers.

The Sudan Appeal is a two-page document calling for regime-change and democracy in the country in Addis Ababa since December 2014, that has been drafted and signed by the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel movements, the National Umma Party, the NCF opposition parties, and the Civil Society Initiative, among other smaller parties.

Minawi said they will look into internal organisational issues, including nominations for the presidency of the Sudan Appeal, the executive office, and other offices.

How to force the Sudanese government to join the negotiation table to comprehensively resolve all issues in the country, is another topic of their meeting. Minawi added that the issue of the National Dialogue will be discussed. “All topics proceed from the need to stop the war as a priority.”

Unwilling to talk with Khartoum

The secretary-general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, one of the armed movements under the SRF, commented on an earlier statement by the Minister of Information that the US initiated an informal meeting between the Sudanese government and the rebel groups in Paris.

“We are ready to meet with the American and British officials, but not willing to meet with the Sudanese government,” secretary-general Yasir Arman said in a press statement yesterday. “We have told the US and UK this.”

Arman confirmed that during a recent meeting with British officials, including Sir Simon McDonald (Permanent Under-Secretary of Foreign & Commonwealth office) and Mark Lowcock (Permanent Secretary at the UK Department for International Development), an initiative of the US regarding the humanitarian situation was discussed.

British optimistic

The British Ambassador to Sudan, Michael Aron, has expressed great optimism of the possibility of progress in the comprehensive peace process in Sudan in the coming days. Last week, he told reporters in Sudan: “There will be good news which will be pleasant for the Sudanese people soon.”