Opposition group calls for new peace process in East Sudan

September 24, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The United People’s Front for Liberation and Justice(UPFLJ), a group from eastern Sudan has called on the African Union mediation to open a new peace track for one of Sudan’s poorest regions.

Zainab Kabashi (ST photo)

The African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) is brokering a peace process with two tracks one for Darfur and the other for the Two Areas. This process also provides to hold national constitutional conference with the participation of all the political forces in Sudan.

The UPFLJ, which is part of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) led by Malik Agar, said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday they wrote to the AUHIP chief Thabo Mbeki urging him to creating a track within this process to discuss the grievances of the eastern Sudan region which comprises the states of Kassala, Gedaref and Red Sea.

The memorandum, which will be handed over to the chief mediator by its chairwoman Zainab Kabashi, urges the AUHIP to "play a positive role in the establishment of a platform to discuss issues of eastern Sudan on the basis of its mandate in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2046 and African Union Peace and Security Council decisions no. 456 and 539."

The opposition group further warned that ignoring the cause of eastern Sudan would lead to frustrate the people of the region who may have resort to other options that would not be in the interest of national unity.

Kabashi will take part in a workshop organized in Addis Ababa from 25 to 30 September where the opposition groups will discuss their different positions on the issues they would negotiate with the Sudanese government in the framework of the African Union mediated process.

The UPFLJ is a splinter faction of the Eastern Front that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in October 2006.

The group says Khartoum government didn’t implement the Eritrean government brokered agreement which provides to establish a $600 million development fund to be paid over four years.