Sudan People’s Liberation Movement halts talks with Khartoum

Malik Agar, the chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N), announced on Saturday that his movement had halted talks and contacts with Khartoum, Masralarabia.com reported.

The Egyptian news website reported Russia Today saying the halt of talks came amid differences among the movement’s leaders, which has been fighting against Khartoum in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions since 2011.

A couple of days ago the differences escalated when Agar was ousted by his deputy Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu, who ousted the movement’s Secretary-General Yasir Arman in March.

Read: Sudan proposes joint force to protect border

“I will concentrate on rebuilding the movement on new bases,” Al-Hilu said. “We will completely stop talks and contacts with Khartoum,” he added, noting that the goal of his movement it to “remove” the current “regime” and to build a “democratic state for all the Sudanese”.

Agar suggested the formation of a new leadership for the movement that excludes all the three leaders, considering this “the only real solution that maintains the unity of the movement.”

He called for giving up internal conflicts as they would lead to the disintegration of the movement, noting this “achieves the interests of the enemy”, in reference to Khartoum.