Reviving the Peace Process in Sudan ... Opportunities, Risks and New Players

03:18 PM December, 13 2018

Sudanese Online
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After a long period of time, the efforts of the peace process in Sudan has been revived following the engagement of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) as an intermediary. This engagement of the GoSS came after the successful mediation by the Sudanese government to broker a peace agreement between adversaries to stop the civil war in South Sudan. In early November 2018, the GoSS officially announced its intention to mediate to bring peace in Sudan..

November 2018, witnessed a number of consultative meetings between various Sudanese political factions, armed movements and the mediators. Juba witnessed continuous meetings between the two factions of SPLM and GoSS. There were also a direct meetings between the Sudanese government and a negotiating delegation of the SPLM- Alhillo faction in Johannesburg, and a separate meeting of the same SPLM faction for consultation with the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) mechanism headed by President Mbeki in Addis Ababa. Another development in this respect was the joint delegation of the Sudan Liberation Movement Minawi (SLMM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), held several meetings with the AUHIP to revive the Darfur peace process in Berlin, Doha and Addis Ababa, which culminated in reaching a pre-negotiation agreement with the African mediation mechanism and the Sudanese government on the procedural issues related to negotiations.

Similarly, the African Mechanism invited the Sudan Call Alliance, which includes a number of political parties and armed opposition movements, to a consultative meeting in Addis on December 9th 2018. The African Mechanism invited the Sudanese government for a parallel meeting on the same date, which raises the possibility of indirect negotiations between the parties, focusing on how to deal with the Road Map Proposal which was signed by all parties to the conflict in August 2016.

The entry of South Sudan to the picture is the biggest factor in pushing the peace process forward. South Sudan has a strong interest in achieving stability and peace in the Sudan, to ensure the flow and export of oil through the Sudanese territory. However, it is worth noting that the tracks of the current peace process are being carried out behind closed doors, without disclosure of enough information to the public to ensure their participation and support for such a process. The fair here is that the current peace processes concludes in agreements that do not address the root causes of the crisis in Sudan. Moreover, the multiplicity of tracks in the current process is also an indication that whatever agreement they reach may turn out to be piecemeal solutions.

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