Juba, South Sudan, June 07, 2021 – The peace signing between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and the Sudan Transitional Government has been postponed to 13th June, Nyamilepedia has learned.
According to a senior official who spoke to the media, the postponement was done to give room to newly-formed committees to settle down and finalize the work required of them.
The peace between SPLM-N and the Sudan Transitional Council was scheduled to be signed on 6th June but outstanding issues yet to be resolved by the new committees forced its adjournment to a later date.
“We as the mediation committee have decided to give ample time to the committees to resolve outstanding issues, they will continue with their consultation from June 7th and we expect direct talks to resume on June 13th,” Dhieu Mathok, a member of the South Sudan Mediation Committee was quoted by The Dawn to have said.
Since the ouster of Omar Bashir, Sudan’s transitional government has been engaging breakaway groups in peace talks as it seeks to restore the country’s rebellious atmosphere to normalcy in anticipation of elections slated for 2022.
In October 2020, the transitional government struck a peace deal with major rebel groups. The peace signing was mediated by the South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit in the capital Juba.
However, the SPLM-N, led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, chose to abstain from signing the declaration of principles at the time.
Al-Hilu’s group, which is active in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces where it controls significant chunks of territory, participated in negotiations leading up to it but did not sign the final deal.
The SPLM-N has been operating in a region inhabited by minority Christians and followers of other beliefs who long complained of discrimination under al-Bashir’s rule. The group has said that if its demands are not met, it will call for self-determination in areas it controls.
One of the principles of the agreement included agreeing to “a civil, democratic, a federal state in Sudan, wherein, the freedom of religion, the freedom of belief and religious practices and worship shall be guaranteed to all Sudanese people by separating the identities of culture, region, ethnicity and religion from the State”.
“No religion shall be imposed on anyone and the state shall not adopt any official religion,” the agreement said.
