International network to support African mediation efforts in Sudan

Mohamed El Hassan Labba, the African envoy, announced, Thursday, that international network had been formed to support African mediation efforts in crisis in Sudan.

Labba stated that the network included the United Nations, the European Union, the Troika (the United States, Britain and Norway), member states of the UN Security Council and some other countries.

He explained that the African mediation efforts consisted of two tracks: the first led by a team from the African Union, and the other headed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali.

He stressed that the African mediation group had doubled efforts to create a suitable climate for reaching an agreement between the conflicting parties in Sudan, i.e. the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change.

Read: Sudan opposition, military council to resume negotiations

Labba spoke of progress in the discussions and talks with the opposing parties separately in Sudan, calling on media to “play a positive role at the current stage, and not to offend the symbols of the TMC, or the leaders of the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change.”

Last Friday, Abiy Ahmed visited Khartoum to hold a meeting with the TMC and a delegation on behalf of the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which have been leading the protests in the country, in order to re-launch the dialogue between conflicting sides.

To return to the negotiating table, the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change required that the TMC recognise the crime of dismantling the Khartoum sit-in, which took place on 3 June and forms an international commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the TMC’s violent operation to dismantle the sit-in.

Thousands of Sudanese protesters have gathered in front of the army headquarters in the capital since 6 April to demand the departure of Omar Al-Bashir and pressure the TMC to hand power over to civilians, amid fears that the army will circumvent the demands of the popular movement in the same way other Arab military authorities did, according to protesters.

On 11 April, the army leadership removed Al-Bashir from office after 30 years in power, following the outbreak of protests late last year denouncing the deteriorating of Sudan’s economic situation.