Sudan: Field escalation precedes the “Jeddah Platform” negotiations
The two sides of the war in Sudan anticipated a new round of negotiations scheduled to resume (Thursday) in the Saudi city of Jeddah, with a remarkable field escalation through intensifying bombing between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, at a time when prominent politicians, including former Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, officially established… “Civil Front” to stop the war.
Eyewitnesses reported (Monday) that “a number of areas in the north of the city of Omdurman were subjected to severe artillery shelling, via shells fired from sites where there are Rapid Support forces in the Bahri area.”
Local sources also told Asharq Al-Awsat that “violent shelling was heard, likely targeting military headquarters belonging to the Rapid Support Forces in the Sports City and the Soba camp ground in southern Khartoum.”
During the past week, the Sudanese army intensified its aerial bombardment, targeting “Rapid Support” assembly centers in several locations in the three cities of the capital, “Khartoum, Bahri, and Omdurman.”
Residential neighborhoods in southern Khartoum remained a hot battlefront between the army and the Rapid Support Forces throughout the months of the war, as they witnessed repeated “human massacres,” resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of civilians as a result of mutual aerial and artillery bombardment between the two warring forces.
Welcome the resumption of negotiations
On a political level, the Sudanese army had announced (Sunday) that it had received an invitation to resume the “Jeddah” negotiations, confirming the participation of its delegation in the meetings, and the “Originally Democratic Unionist Party,” which is considered a major faction in the “Forces of Freedom and Change Alliance,” welcomed the announcement of the resumption of negotiations. Facilitated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America.
The “Forces of Change” also call on the largest political coalition in the country to unify the regional initiatives proposed to resolve the crisis in Sudan, to support the path of the “Jeddah Platform” as “the only option” available to both sides of the fighting to stop the war.
The past few days also witnessed movements by the African Union and IGAD, during which they held consultations with the various political blocs in the Egyptian capital, according to a new vision for a comprehensive political process that does not intersect with the course of negotiations in Jeddah.
In turn, Malik Agar, Vice President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, stressed that “the next round of the Jeddah Negotiating Forum between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces will only be concerned with implementing what was previously agreed upon in the platform.”
Aqar told the Arab World News Agency (Monday) that it is “a round related to implementing what was agreed upon (previously) in Jeddah… and there is no new agenda, but rather it includes one item, which is implementing what was agreed upon.”
Last May, the army and the “Rapid Support” signed their first agreement within the “Jeddah Talks,” which included several humanitarian commitments, in addition to a clause stipulating that the legal or political status of the signatories to the agreement would not be affected.
“Civil Front”
In the same context, official meetings began in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa (Monday), to establish the “Broad Civil Front” that aims to stop the war and restore democratic civilian rule, amid a remarkable presence led by former Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and the head of the nationalist “Umma” Party, Fadlallah. screw.
A group of political parties, the “Alliance of the Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change,” civil society organizations, and prominent national figures participated in the meetings, which are expected to continue until next Wednesday, in order to develop political, organizational, and economic visions to stop the war and restore the democratic civil transition, using popular pressure on both sides of the fighting. To stop hostilities and return to the democratic civil transition.
Former Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok said in a speech to the opening session that the meetings “are the beginning of a more comprehensive process that opens the way for the participation of anti-war and pro-peace civil forces, and the restoration of the democratic civil transition.”
Hamdok explained that “the suffering that the people of Sudan are experiencing due to the war forces everyone to redouble their efforts in order to agree on a political project that will end the conflicts in the country and address their urgent humanitarian impacts, in order to achieve comprehensive peace in the country,” calling on the Sudanese forces to what he called “raising the nation’s reputation.” “And rising above partisan differences,” in order to remedy the disastrous conditions left by the ongoing war since mid-April.
Hamdok called on those gathered to spare the opportunity for those he described as “inciters of sedition and promoters of hate speech among the Sudanese,” and continued: “This accursed war to which our country is exposed has destroyed its people and its infrastructure.”
For his part, the head of the nationalist “Umma” Party, Fadlallah Barma Nasser, warned in his opening speech of the effects of the war in Sudan on the security and safety of the region and the world, saying: “The Sudanese war affected and is affecting the regional system, contributed to fueling human trafficking, and opened the door to communication with Terrorist groups in the region.
Barma stressed the importance of “unifying the ranks of the democratic forces,” and said: “With this meeting, we are laying the seed for the formation of the broadest civil front,” and he called on the political and civil forces not participating in the meeting.
The prominent politician stressed the importance of “speaking out loud to stop the war and end the human tragedy that the country is experiencing, and the importance of the role of civil forces in this, and in holding accountable those who committed crimes and violations.” He also welcomed the resumption of negotiations between the army and the “Rapid Support” in the “Jeddah Platform.”
In turn, the representative of the Sudanese Resistance Committees, Ibrahim Arbab, called in his speech during the event to “pursue serious dialogue in order to establish a civil front to stop the war, and pledged that the differences between the parties would not prevent the unity of the civil front.”
2023-10-24 12:25:42
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