Africa

September 24, 2016 (BOR) – Governor Philip Aguer has questioned the unfair distribution of the current newly created 14 counties in the new Jonglei state, but supported the increase in the number of the counties in principle although merging some of them in the future, he said, is a possibility.

Aguer, who first rejected the creation of the 14 counties earlier this month, said he had received a valid reason from the national capital, Juba, for their implementation. He made the remarks during the swearing in ceremony of the newly appointed commissioners on Friday, 23 September.

“The local government board recommended the 14 counties, so we have the legitimacy to implement the fourteen counties,” Aguer noted in his speech.

According to Aguer who comes from Twic East county, home to late leader John Garang, he said the biggest question which remained not answered was the reasons for not increasing the number of counties in Duk and Twic East counties.

Currently, the former Bor county, where defense minister Kuol Manyang Juuk and information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, has been increased into 8 new counties while Twic East is only increased to 3 counties and Duk with only 3 counties as well, making the total 14 new counties.

“The other question was, what about the other counties, like Twic East and Duk, who did not get more [counties] than what they requested? We have addressed that by seeing it to the population,” Aguer inquired.

“Decentralization process is not a one-day-process, you do this step and you evaluate it. So the rest of the areas-Twic and Duk- in the near future, if they need more counties, provided that is justified, and is not bringing more problems, then definitely we will recommend a county,” he said.

He said after two to three years, the state may evaluate the status of the new counties and may decide to further increase the number or merge the current ones into smaller number of administrative units.

“As I said decentralization is a process, [that] needs to be evaluate, may be 2 to 3 years, evaluation will come, and we will recommend more [counties] or amalgamation,” he added.

He said services delivery to the people should be the top priority to the government, not to have more counties.

“We the politicians need more counties, but what do the people want? The people need more services; it is our role to provide the services. You have more counties now, what is remaining is the services and the people will start questioning you tomorrow, where are the services?” Aguer, a former SPLA military spokesperson, continued.

Although the governor instructed the minister of finance to plan on how to get the budget for the 14 counties, he clearly urged the commissioners to think of where to get their vehicles as the state would not be able financially to buy vehicles.

“Now that you are appointed, expect a lot of challenges. You may wonder if you will get salaries. Mobility is another, bicycle and footing will be shame on the commissioner. For you to get vehicles, you must mobilize 250 heads [each] of cattle to buy a car,” he said, directing them to get the cattle from the populations they will be administering in their respective counties.

“We have every reason to create more counties because we have issues of insecurity. Issues of the education are handled at the level of the payams and counties,” he further continued.

Peace was among the issues the governor talked about when he addressed the new commissioner, saying peace between the Dinka of Jonglei state and the Murle ethnic group of Boma state should be consolidated.

“We have the task to implement the peace agreement signed in Juba and the peace between us and our neighbors. We have moved two steps forward in the direction of peace between us and Boma state. The Murle community is more than committed to peace and to peaceful co-existence,” he emphasized.

He said through achievement of peace the state authorities should plan for the return of the displaced people who are scattered all over the region, adding they will not come back if the authorities do not have peace and security.

“Through peace, we will return our cattle camps that are becoming bone of contention in Equartoria,” he said.

Some commissioners, who spoke on behave of their colleagues, pledged to work with the government to improve service delivery, work for peace within, and between their borders.

(ST)

September 24, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has criticized the United Nations for welcoming the release by the sudanese government of child soldiers allegedly recruited by Darfur rebel groups saying the international body was deceived by the regime.

Undated picture extended to Sudan Tribune on 28 April 2015 by the Justice and Equality Movement showing their fighters during a training exercise

Earlier this month, President Omer al-Bashir announced the release of twenty one children allegedly detained during the Gouz Dango battle with the JEM in April 2014.

However the rebel group denied that these children were part of its fighters reiterating its commitment to international conventions banning the use of child soldiers.

On Wednesday, the UN welcomed the release of the child soldiers and vowed to work with the Sudanese government to enhance the protection of children in the armed conflict affected areas in Sudan.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Saturday, JEM spokesperson Gibril Adam Bilal, underscored that his movement doesn't recruit children and hence there is no child soldiers among its prisoners held by the regime.

He described the UN announcement that the move indicates the regime's intention to implement the work plan developed by the UN last March as “strange and suspicious”.

“How did the UN know that those whom the regime claimed to have released were captured during the Gouz Dango battle?” he wondered.

Belal also wondered about the measures that the UN has taken to ensure the validity of the regime's claims and to confirm that the children belong to the JEM.

JEM spokesperson described the UN move as “breach of the minimum standards of justice”, saying the international body took for granted the regime's claims and didn't consider the viewpoint of the movement.

“What is the legal justification that allows the regime to keep [these children] in the prison cells of its security organs and torture them physically and morally for 17 months without notifying their families or the United Nations or the competent organizations of their conditions and whereabouts?” he further wondered
The Sudanese army has been fighting a group of armed movements in Darfur since 2003.

According to the UN, 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and 2, 5 million chased from their homes.

(ST)

September 24, 2016 (JUBA)- The new South Sudanese First Vice President Taban Deng Gai will be holding series of meetings with top officials in the United States to explain circumstances under which he replaced Machar and his vision in implementing the peace agreement.

Gai will hold a meeting with the U.S. Administration and Congress between September 28 and October 4.

According to a statement from the embassy of South Sudan in the United States, the US Congress has already accepted to hear from the FVP about how to implement the peace in South Sudan. The high ranking members of the Congress will meet him next week.

On the other hand, senators on Foreign Relations Committee have also expressed willingness to meet the FVP to hear from him the circumstances under which the leadership changes of the SPLM-IO took place and whether it was in accordance with the provision of the peace agreement.

The visiting South Sudanese deputy president will meet officials in the White House and US state Department to discuss humanitarian assistance and the deployment of the protection force that is supposed to be deployed to South Sudan.

“It should be noted that the views expressed by some senators during the hearing of September 20 are not shared by the White House and the State Department. The position of the White House and the State Department is very clear, that is, Riek Machar should not return to Juba. This position was expressed by Donald Booth on September 7 hearing in the Congress," said Gordon Buaya senior diplomat at South Sudan embassy in Washington.

The diplomat stressed that the White House and the state Department want Gen. Taban and President Kiir to continue implementation of the peace. He expressed fears that the return of Riek Machar to Juba can lead to more war and instability.

“The FVP will also make presentations at various Think tanks in Washington DC. He will make presentations at Wilson Center, US Institute for Peace and Atlantic Council. His presentations will be attended by policy makers and academics in Washington, DC,” he added.

Gai led the South Sudan's delegation for the meetings of the UN General Assembly in New York.

(ST)

September 24, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - A delegation from the internal groups of the opposition umbrella Sudan Call on Saturday has travelled to Addis Ababa to participate in the meeting which will take place from 25 to 30 September to discuss organizational matters of the alliance and the pre-dialogue meeting.

Leaders of the opposition "Sudan Call" sign an agreement on the alliance's structures in Paris on 22 April 2016 (ST Photo)

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Saturday, Sudan Call spokesperson Mohamed Farouk Sulieman said the delegation was led by the chairman of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) Omer al-Digair who is also the head of the internal groups of the Sudan Call.

He pointed the Addis Ababa meeting would review political stances of the alliance besides discussing ways to develop its organizational structures and the role of the Sudan Call in unifying the opposition forces.

According to Sulieman, a workshop would be held in conjunction with the Addis Ababa meeting to develop the joint stance of the Sudan Call toward the upcoming preparatory dialogue meeting with the government groups.

The Sudan Call groups participating in the meeting include the two factions of the armed opposition umbrella Sudan Revolutionary Forces (SRF), the National Umma Party (NUP) besides the internal groups of the alliance including the SCoP, the Sudanese Ba'ath Party (SBP), the National Alliance Party (NAP), the Sudanese National Party (SNP) and the Center Alliance Party (CAP).

Last week, the leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Gibril Ibrahim told Sudan Tribune that the Sudan Call groups will meet in Addis Ababa from 25 to 30 September to discuss the preparatory meeting to coordinate positions and discuss some organizational matters.

Ibrahim who chairs a faction of the SRF stressed that the good coordination between the opposition forces, which include political and military groups, is needed more than any structural reforms.

On Wednesday, the opposition alliance National Consensus Forces (NCF), which is part of the Sudan Call, suspended the membership of the SCoP, SBP, NAP, SNP and the CAP as a result of the increasing differences over their participation in the African Union-led peace process.

Since several months, the NCF has been divided over its participation, within the framework of the opposition umbrella Sudan Call, in the negotiations for a peaceful settlement to end war in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states and Darfur region and a national constitutional dialogue conference.

While the suspended groups were willing to take part in the political process alongside the armed groups and NUP, the other forces including the Sudanese Communist Party say they want the Sudan Call to focus on the regime change agenda and popular uprising.

They believe that the current process would not bring democratic change in Sudan but would be a repetition to previous peace agreements and reinvigorates the regime of President Omer al-Bashir.

(ST)

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September 23, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, and his chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, have eventually accepted the creation of the cantonment sites for the armed opposition fighters in his home region of Bahr el Ghazal, according to senior officials.

It remains unclear what prompted the sudden change of heart after a long intransigence and insistence to not allow the creation of the assembling points or areas for the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA-IO) led by his former first deputy, Riek Machar.

Establishment of cantonment areas for the SPLA-IO was one of the key sticking matters which stalled the implementation of the security arrangements in the country.
Several government officials, including the president, were previously keen to advance narratives that Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions, unlike Upper Nile region, were not active military combat zones during the more than two years, despite the presence of leading politicians and prominent figures with a significant military and political following from the two regions in the movement.

The differences and delays to reach a consensus resulted in the building up of tension which escalated to deadly clashes in Juba after rival forces traded statements depicting the other to have initiated provocative acts against the other.

Observers interpreted the sudden change of heart to mean attempts by Kiir and his military and political confidants to portray opposition leader Machar as the cause for the delay.

South Sudan army spokesman, Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang, told reporters on Friday that four cantonment sites will be established in greater Equatoria region and two others in Bahr el Ghazal.

These cantonment sites, according to the military spokesman, will be used by armed opposition fighters to whom he referred to as “SPLM/A-IO peace wing” under the command and leadership of the newly appointed first vice president, Taban Deng Gai. The military spokesman referred to Machar's group as “warmongers” to be dealt with.

Meanwhile Gen. Augustino S.K. Njoroge, deputy head of the Joint Monitory and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), a body charged with responsibility to overseeing implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan by the regional leaders, announced on Thursday the two sides have agreed in principle during a two-day workshop in Juba to work out all the requirements set out by the UN Security Council resolution on the deployment of a regional protection force in Juba.

The two-day workshop, he said, brought together politicians and military commanders to review proposals and make recommendations for realignment of transitional security arrangements for Juba, including how to introduce the UN regional protection force and realignment of security arrangements.

Njoroge reaffirmed commitment of the monitoring body to work out details of specific tasks. He described the conduct of the workshop as successful and has achieved all the objectives for which it was organised and conducted for the stakeholders in the peace agreement.

“We have received a joint briefing from the parties on their shared concept of Juba security arrangements whose details can now be fine-tuned and actualized,” Njoroge told reporters.

He commended the parties in Juba for recommitting to the peace process, while appreciating the international community for supporting the people of South Sudan to realize peace and stability.

The peace monitoring official confirmed receiving a detailed briefing and government proposal for the cantonment, verification and demobilization of forces with approval for establishment of cantonment sites in previously contested areas in the Equatoria and Bahr al Ghazal regions.

He also pointed out that the proposal provides a useful starting point and sets out clear steps and challenges to be addressed by the parties in the event of disagreement during the cause of implementation.

Another document they received, he said, was a realignment concept note of operations for United Nations mission in the country and the regional protection force that compliments the JMCC plan.

The deputy head of JMEC revealed that the parties also agreed in principle on the matter of forces required in Juba, redeployment of forces and commitment to jointly working through the technical details of armament types and the numbers at JMCC and UNMISS levels.

The workshop developed a very clear task and timelines for operationalizing the proposed security arrangements to be worked out in future details by JMCC, UNMISS, CTSAMM and Transitional government of national unity to finalize implementation of the UN Security Council resolution.

(ST)

September 23, 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.

(ST)

September 23, 2016 (JUBA) - Top ranking regional religious leaders have on Friday called for an end to South Sudan's conflict, saying violence in all its forms does not resolve the differences but “begets violent destruction.”

South Sudan's religious leaders pray for a peace ahead of a referendum in 2011 (Photo: Michael Wagner/File)

The religious leaders, who held closed door meeting with President Salva Kiir, include Archbishops and Primates of Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, were accompanied by the archbishop of Roman Catholic, Paulino Lukudu Loro, archbishop of episcopal church in Sudan and South Sudan, Daniel Deng Bul, and chairman of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) and moderator of the Presbyterian church in Sudan and South Sudan, Reverend Peter Gai Lual, among others.

It was not immediately clear what the top religious leaders have told the president and whether or not he accepted their pleas to end the violent conflict which erupted on 8 July and instead implement the peace agreement wholly without reservations.

But in a brief statement issued to journalists after their meeting with the South Sudanese president, the religious leaders said that millions of innocent civilians in the country are victims of war and are pleading for peace, often receiving nothing but the “bitter vinegar of rejection,” their cries silenced “with the same ease with which television channels are changed.”

The indifference to suffering, according to the statement, which it said is a product of war, is a virus “that paralyzes, rendering us lethargic and insensitive, a disease that eats away at the very heart of religious fervor, giving rise to a new and deeply sad paganism.”

“The families whose lives have been shattered by war, the children who've known nothing but violence, the elderly who've been forced to abandon their countries, all of them have a great thirst for peace,” the statement said.

“We appeal to the leadership to put a stop to war and bring peace, a true peace that is not illusory,” they said.

Peace, they advised, has to be built by giving “first place” to those who suffer, fixing conflicts from within, through a consistent goodness and rejecting the “shortcuts offered by evil.”

They said peace means forgiveness; welcome and openness to dialogue; cooperation, and education, which the statement described as a call to learn “the challenging art of communion.”

The top religious leaders further added that victims of war hardly get attention they deserve from the authorities.

“Who listens to them? Who bothers responding to them? Far too often they encounter the deafening silence of indifference, the selfishness of those annoyed at being pestered, the coldness of those who silence their cry for help with the same ease with which television channels are changed,” they lamented.

The statement further stressed that “the lust for power and money, the greed of arms dealers, personal interests and vendettas for past wrongs,” and the underlying causes of conflicts, including “poverty, injustice and inequality, the exploitation of and contempt for human life, are the bad deeds haunting the nation.

(ST)

September 23, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Federal Ministry of Health on Friday announced that Blue Nile State is free of watery diarrhea after dozens of people died of the disease in the state.

A child receives an oral cholera vaccine dose in the South Sudan capital, Juba (Medair Photo)

According to the Under-secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Essam al-Din Mohamed, 55 people died from watery diarrhea and 2619 cases have been reported across Sudan, with Blue Nile State is the highest in the number of infections.

State Minister for Health, Sumia Akad said that the reported cases are below the normal average and the number of cases admitted to the 30 centers assigned for the epidemic control were 31 cases on Wednesday, 19 cases on Thursday and 8 cases on Friday.

The federal state minister is visiting the Blue Nile state after media reports and statements by the opposition parties about cholera outbreak in the troubled region where the government forces carry out a counterinsurgency military campaign on the SPLM-N rebels.

In statements to the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) during her tour to the health centers and dispensaries the minister said that 27 centers did not report any new cases on Friday.

Last week , Federal Ministry of Health acknowledged that hundreds of people in Blue Nile State were infected by watery diarrhea caused by (E. coli) bacteria stressing that the epidemic in not cholera.

“The emergency health room will continue its efforts and more units of water purification would be added,” stressed Akad who also praised the role of youth women and students groups participating actively in the local efforts to raise awareness and prevent the spread of the disease.

The minister pointed that the federal government has provided sprayers, pesticides, drugs and garbage collection vehicles to enhance environment health in two of Blue Nile State localities.

(ST)

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

September 23, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the European Union (EU) to closely watch Eritrea over gross human rights violations by the regime which Some of these violations may constitute crimes against humanity.

Eritrean president, Isias Afewerki (AFP Photo)

RSF issued the statement while paying tribute to the 11 Eritrean journalists held indefinitely in inhuman conditions since September 2001.

The 2001 crackdown against journalists in Eritrea came one year after the country ended a bloody war with its larger neighbour, Ethiopia, over border dispute.

On September 2001, some 15 high-ranking officials from the ruling People's Front for Democracy party wrote a protest letter to President Isaias Afwerki calling him for reform, implement the constitution and conduct national elections.
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The open letter further blames the president for going to war with Ethiopia which claimed the lives of 70,000 people.

They said the war was unnecessary and accused the president of taking actions that were “illegal and unconstitutional”.

The protest letter which shortly led to the arrest of the then known as G-15 was widely published by a number of independent Media leading to arrest of editors of all the independent print media.

The government also shut down all independent media in Eritrea.

This month marks 15 year in jail without charge for the 11 journalists.

A report last year by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea said the regime in Asmara is responsible for systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations.

The grave human right violations the report said have created a climate of fear in which dissent is stifled, a large proportion of the population is subjected to forced labour and imprisonment, and hundreds of thousands forced to flee the country.

With this regard RSF urged the European Union, which is trying to normalize its relations with Asmara, to not close its eyes to actions that constitute crimes against humanity and violations of the Eritrean population's fundamental rights.

“We also address this message to the EU governments that are negotiating a return to normal relations with Asmara without asking about political prisoners and human rights,” RSF said.

The rights group said at least 15 journalists are currently detained arbitrarily in Eritrea but the number might be higher because no information emerges from the secretive nation.

Extrajudicial killings, widespread torture, sexual slavery are also among right abuses long been reported by right groups.

Western governments have lately shown a clear interest to normalize relations with the reclusive East African nation as part of their strategy to stem a huge flow of Eritrean refugees to European soil.

“The EU cannot close its eyes to the Eritrean government's countless violations, which a UN Human Rights Council report in June described as ‘crimes against humanity.' The EU cannot adopt a conciliatory position towards the Afeworki regime” it added.

Among the arrested journalists seven are believed to have died in detention.

“We call on President Afeworki to stop persisting in these arbitrary and repressive practices and to free the journalists who are still imprisoned,” RSF said.

“The freedoms of Eritrea's citizens have been constantly flouted for the past 15 years on the grounds of national security and the eternal conflict with Ethiopia”

“The president says his priority is development. You cannot have sustainable development without an open society in which the justice system functions and freedoms are respected,” it added.

Eritrea has been ranked last out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index every year for the past eight years.

Referred by right groups as the North Korea of Africa, the Red Sea nation is one of the world's most repressive states.

Currently there are an estimated 10,000 political prisoners in atrocious conditions in different prison facilities across the country where they remain subjected to different forms of abuses.

(ST)

September 23, 2016 (JUBA) - The United States is pledging nearly $133 million in additional humanitarian assistance to South Sudan's refugees and internally displaced people, its State Department said.

South Sudanese refugees cook on an open fire at a camp run by the Sudanese Red Crescent Society in Sudan's White Nile state on 27 January 2014 (Photo: AFP/Ashraf Shazly)

The funding was announced Thursday during a high level event on South Sudan at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“Aid can only be effective if it reaches the people who need it most”, partly reads a statement issued by the State Department.

The US urged all parties stop attacking civilians, allow humanitarians unfettered access to those in needs throughout South Sudan, and cease violations of international humanitarian law and principles.

“No amount of humanitarian aid will end the violence or provide lasting solutions to this man-made crisis,” it said, adding, “We call on South Sudan's leaders to prioritize the safety and security of the citizens they represent, to restore stable environments for civilians and humanitarians, and to enable people to rebuild their lives”.

Over 2.7 million people, aid agencies say, have been forced to flee their homes, either to other parts of South Sudan or to neighboring countries as refugees due to conflict in the world's youngest nation.

At least 40% of the South Sudan populations are reportedly in need of life-saving assistance, with some people on the brink of starvation.

The new funding, the US said, will boost emergency health services, increase access to and the availability of clean water and sanitation, provide psychosocial support and other services to survivors of gender-based violence, increase access to emergency education for refugee children, and build and expand new refugee camps throughout the region.

“Our assistance will also help feed the hungry, provide nutrition supplements for children suffering from malnutrition, and reunite families separated by the fighting,” it further stressed.

The aid comes amid discussions over whether the US should cut its aid to South Sudan, a young nation trying to recover from civil war.

Last month, however, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry said US humanitarian assistance to South Sudan will not continue forever if its leaders "are not prepared to do what's necessary for their people."

Over one million people have fled South Sudan since fighting broke out in December 2013, and more than 1.6 million people have been internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

This additional funding brings the total US humanitarian aid for the people of South Sudan to nearly $1.9 billion since the start of the conflict in December 2013.

(ST)

September 23, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Friday said the Chadian President Idriss Deby would participate in the final session of Sudan's dialogue conference scheduled to be held on October 10th in Khartoum.

Sudan's FM Ibrahim Ghandour shakes hands with the Chadian President Idris Deby in New York on 22 September 2016 (ST Photo)

In a press release extended to Sudan Tribune on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said Deby has confirmed his acceptance of the invitation extended to him by President Omer al-Bashir to attend the dialogue conference, saying the Chadian President is keen to achieve peace and consensus in Sudan.

Meanwhile, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour met with the Chadian President on Thursday at his residence in New York on the sidelines of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gharib Allah Khidir pointed that Ghandour has conveyed to Deby a verbal message from President al-Bashir pertaining to bilateral relations between the two countries.

It is noteworthy that President Deby had participated in the inauguration of the national dialogue in October 2015.

In January 2014, President Omer al-Bashir called on political parties and armed groups to engage in a national dialogue to discuss four issues, including ending the civil war, allowing political freedoms, fighting against poverty and revitalising national identity.

Launched on 10 October 2015 for three months, the dialogue process was initially expected to wind up in January 2016 but it was delayed until October 10th.

The opposition groups refuse to join the process and call on the government to implement a number of confidence building measures aimed to create a suitable atmosphere for dialogue. But the government refuses their claims.

(ST)

September 23, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour has participated in the ministerial meeting of the international liaison group on the Libyan issue on the sidelines of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Ibrahim Ghandour attends African Union ministers meeting in Addis Ababa on 11 April 2016 (ST Photo)

In a press release on Friday, the foreign ministry said Ghandour attended the meeting which was held under the auspices of the African Union, pointing the meeting was co-chaired by the US Secretary of State John Kerry and Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

He added that the Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj pointed in his address before the meeting that the Sudanese rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group are actively involved in the fighting among Libyan factions.

On September 10th, Libya's Oil Installation Guards, Central Branch, spokesman, Ali Al Hassi, accused JEM of participating alongside renegade General Khalifa Haftar's forces in an attack against the oil facilities in east Libya.

However, the political advisor to JEM's chairman, Mahgoub Hussein, denied the accusations and stressed that his movement has no presence in the Libyan territory.
He described what is going on in Libya as an “internal affair”.

According to the foreign ministry, the meeting of the liaison group stressed the need to support and strengthen the GNA government in order to ensure Libya's unity.

The meeting was also attended by representatives from various countries and regional bodies including Libya's neighbors, United Nations, European Union, the Arab League and African Union besides Canada, China, France, Germany, Malta, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

The GNA, which formally came into being in March 2016, has been struggling to unify war-ridden North African nation and exert its control over its entire territory.

However, its task is complicated by the presence of a parallel government operating out of eastern Libya, backed by local militias and units of the national army loyal to Haftar.

(ST)