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UK envoy to Sudan meets SPLM leaders

May 30, 2019 at 3:39 pm

UK envoy to Sudan meets SPLM leaders [Irfan Siddiq/Twitter]

The British Ambassador to Khartoum Irfan Siddiq met with the Deputy Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Yasir Arman and the movement’s Secretary-General Ismail Khamis yesterday and discussed the importance of the international community’s continued support for the formation of a civilian government on all levels.

The meeting also addressed “transition from war to peace and from totalitarianism to democracy” in Sudan, the Anadolu Agency reported, citing an SPLM press statement.

The movement, according to its statement, considers it necessary to continue to abide by previous agreements between the military council and the Forces of Freedom of Change. It also called for respecting human rights and the Sudanese people’s freedom of expression, including at the protests.

The SPLM also urged the civil society and political actors to take into consideration the issues of wars and the fate of millions of Sudanese refugees and displaced person. It called for issuing a declaration that acknowledges the root causes that led to wars and the displacement of civilians.

READ: Gulf countries, Egypt will not allow Sudan to hand power to civilians 

Amran and Khamis arrived in Khartoum on Sunday.

The SPLM has been involved in a military conflict in the Sudanese southern states of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile.

The movement was formed by fighters who sided with South Sudan in its conflict with Khartoum before a peace agreement was reached in 2005 and South Sudan became independent in 2011.

In response to popular protests that started in late last year, the Sudanese army ousted long time president Omar Al-Bashir on 11 April after he ruled the country for 30 years.

Protests have continued as people call for the military to hand power over to civilians.