Sisi receives an invitation to attend signing of peace deal in Sudan

CAIRO - 22 September 2020: President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi received Lieutenant General Tut Jalwak, advisor to the President of the Republic of South Sudan for Security Affairs, in the presence of Head of General Intelligence Abbas Kamel, and Minister of Investment of the Republic of South SudanDaewMatouk.

 

Bassam Rady, a spokesperson for the Presidency of the Republic, stated that Jalawak conveyed to the President a message from President of the Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, to invite himto participate in the final signing ceremony of the peace agreement between the Sudanese transitional government and the Sudanese armed movements.

 

The final signing of thepeace agreement between Sudan's government and rebel groups is set for October 2 in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.

 

"October 2 is the date for the final signing of the peace agreement between the government and the parties to the peace process," Tut Gatluak, head of the mediation team and South Sudan's presidential adviser on security affairs, wrote on Twitter.

The Sudanese authorities and leaders from the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of rebel groups, initialed a historic peace agreement on August 31 in Juba aimed at ending nearly two decades of the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, particularly in western Darfur.

Established in 2011, the SRF brings together rebels from the war-ravaged western Darfur region, as well as the southern states of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Reaching a peace accord with rebel groups has been a priority of Sudan's transitional government, which came to power after the April 2019 ouster of long-time leader Omar al-Bashir following months of mass protests.

The deal covers key issues around security, land ownership, transitional justice, power-sharing, and the return of people who fled their homes because of fighting. It also provides for the dismantling of rebel forces and the integration of their fighters into the national army.

Fighting in Darfur alone left around 300,000 people dead after rebels took up arms in 2003. Conflict in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile erupted in 2011 as South Sudan seceded from Sudan, resuming a war that had raged from 1983 to 2005.

Since October 2019, South Sudan has been mediating between the Sudanese government and the armed groups from Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile regions.