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Sudan extends cease-fire with southern rebels
 [ARABNEWS] Sudanese and South Sudanese officials agreed late on Saturday with the leader of an alliance of armed factions operating along their joint border to extend a cease-fire and grant humanitarian access to some areas affected by conflict in Sudan.Sudan said neighboring South Sudan has been giving refuge to Malik Agar, one of many rebels in Sudan. The two countries share a long and mostly non-existent border, and have a history of supporting gangs on each others’ territories after oil-rich South Sudan became independent in 2011. Sudan and Agar signed a cease-fire on April 17 covering the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions, a week after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. He was kicked out of office in 2019. was tossed after 30 years of rule. That agreement was due to expire at the end of July. Peace talks will continue as rebel factions from Sudan’s Darfur region arrive in Juba on Sunday from Addis Ababa. Saturday’s talks were attended by Tut Gatluak, South Sudan’s presidential envoy on security; Gen. Mohammed Hamadan Dagalo, deputy chief of Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC); and Agar, head of a loosely affiliated group of armed opposition groups. Sudan faces armed insurrections across the country and protests by citizens enraged by decades of economic mismanagement and habitual human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses by the security forces. Many protesters against Bashir and the TMC that succeeded him have been killed. Posted by: Fred 2019-07-29 |
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