Sudan’s ruling transitional government and the country’s main rebel group resumed a fresh round of peace talks on Wednesday in the latest effort to end a decades-long conflict in the East African country, reported Aljazeera.
The negotiation talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Popular Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu, are being hosted by South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.
General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of Sudan’s ruling sovereign council, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and al-Hilu attended a ceremonial meeting on Wednesday. Later on, delegations from the government and the rebel group continued with the closed deliberations in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, according to the prime minister’s office.
Hamdok said the peace talks provide an opportunity for Sudanese to solve their internal problems, underlining the need to bring about freedom and improve the welfare of the people affected by the conflict.
“We start the dialogue today, the dialogue is not only about mere negotiation but we must be able to solve our problems and bring to an end the suffering of our people,” said Hamdok.
South Sudanese president Salva Kiir urged the parties to embrace the spirit of dialogue to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Sudan’s South Kordofan and the Blue Nile regions, where the SPLM-N has waged a rebellion against the regime in Khartoum.
Kiir called both the parties to the negotiation talks to embrace the spirit of dialogue and shift attention to peace instead of war. He said the war will never save people anything.
The latest round of talks comes less than two months after the Sudanese government and the rebel group signed a declaration of principles detailing a road map for the talks.
Notably, Al-Hilu’s group had refused to sign the October 2020 final peace deal with the Sudan transitional government that was signed by other opposition groups.
