AU calls for talks for peace in Khartoum
Saturday January 29 2022
Sudanese anti-coup protesters. The military’s Sovereign Council had formed a power-sharing agreement with civilian movements, allowing Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to get into office last year. FILE PHOTO | COURTESY
The African Union has urged Sudan’s protagonists to resume dialogue “primarily” between parties that had been in the transitional government before the October 25 coup. The proposal out of a meeting of the 15-member African Union Peace and Security Council came as the UN faced accusations of “interference” for proposing a transition programme that civilian movements for democracy have rejected.
The Council said it “underscores the primacy of dialogue between signatories of Sudan’s Constitutional Declaration of August 2019 and the Juba Peace Agreement of October 2020.”
It followed a presentation from AU’s special envoy to Sudan Mohamed Belaiche, who had told the Council that the crisis in Sudan was not just about the violent crushing of protests but also the splinter in parties that are expected to negotiate with the military.
The military’s Sovereign Council had formed a power-sharing agreement with civilian movements, allowing Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to get into office last year. It also created the Transitional Sovereign Council, whose ceremonial head had to alternate between civilians and military. The coup happened just weeks to the change of guard last year. But since then, the street protestors have also joined different alliances.
On December 27, 2021, political alliances, parties and civil society organisations launched an alliance called the National Movement Forces, to resist foreign interference in Sudan's affairs. The Sudanese for National Sovereignty was established early this month as a coalition of political party actors to demand “the cessation of foreign interference in the Sudanese decision, against the backdrop of international and regional initiatives to resolve the crisis.”
Both alliances have a common enemy in the junta, but their separate coalitions have made it harder to resume any dialogue.
This week, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Bankole Adeoye delivered a message to Lt-Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the Sovereign Council, pledging readiness of the African Union to support the political consensus among all political parties.