Sudan Parliament Rejects Talks with Rebels
Khartoum--Sudan’s Parliament has rejected any prospect for talks with Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels, disclaiming a United Nations resolution that calls for a political settlement of the conflict.
On Monday the Sudanese parliament said it would not also allow foreign aid agencies into rebel-held states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan near its contested border with the south, as proposed jointly by the UN, African Union and Arab League.
“We reject negotiations with SPLM-N.”Mohammed al-Hassan al-Amin head of parliamentary foreign affairs committee told the house on Monday.
The UN Security Council earlier this month passed a resolution demanding for extension of “full Cooperation” from both the Khartoum government and the SPLM-N in realization of a negotiated settlement under mediation of the AU and east Africa’s diplomatic body Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad).
The UN statement called for a political settlement based on respect for diversity in unity, since there can be no military solution into the conflict that continues to threaten its relations with the newly independent South Sudan.
Khartoum has accused Juba of supporting the SPLM-N, which once fought alongside the now the southern rulers during the civil war, accusations which the south denies claiming Sudan was backing rebels in its territory.
Government forces alongside other militias in the region allied to Khartoum have been battling SPLM-N since June last year when it embarked on what it claimed as disarmament operation against the rebel group that fought besides now South Sudan’s government during decades of north-south conflict.
The proxy accusations over involvement with rebels in the other side of the border of the two states seems fueling to the unrelenting conflict that is threatening for an all-out war, with recent clashes over contested border taking shape each day.
UN has estimated that about 400,000 people have been displaced in the ongoing violence, warning that about 300,000 people in the region face risk of starvation if they don’t receive any aid.
The Khartoum government banning of foreign aid operations to the restive southern Sudan region has attracted major criticism from rights groups which have accused the Khartoum of trying to cover up atrocities, which they want investigations to be conducted in the area.