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The Sudanese government and the Northern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) agreed on Friday to resume negotiations in Juba after a two-week suspension. This came in a statement issued by the media office of the Council of Ministers and signed by both Prime Minister Hamdok and SPLM leader Abdulaziz Al-Hilu, according to Anadolu Agency.
The statement revealed that both parties have agreed to: “Hold unofficial workshops to discuss differential issues, such as the problematic relationship between religion and state and self-determination, in order to reach a mutual understanding that facilitates the mission of the official negotiating groups. ”.
They also agreed that the negotiations will be hosted by South Sudan and under the mediation of Juba, in addition to establishing a roadmap to define the focus of the negotiations. The participation of regional and international partners will also be valuable.
This step came two days after Hamdok invited the SPLM and the Sudan Liberation Army movement to join the peace agreement.
Hamdok’s invitation came immediately after returning from Juba, where a peace treaty initiative was signed with the armed Revolutionary Front that guarantees eight protocols, the most prominent of which is sharing power, wealth and transitional justice.
In the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Hamdok and Al-Hilu agreed on Thursday on the importance of fully recognizing the racial and cultural variation in Sudan and of legally fulfilling equality.
Read: Sudan signs a historic peace agreement with five rebel groups
In another statement, they revealed that they agreed to “establish a democratic state in Sudan” where “the constitution is based on the separation of religion from the state, self-determination and freedom of religion.”
The statement added that: “The state cannot have an official religion and cannot religiously distinguish between Sudanese citizens.”
The Sudanese prime minister arrived in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday to meet with the president of the SPLM, hoping to break the ice from the stalled negotiations in Juba.
On August 20, the SPLM had walked out of the negotiations in protest of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, vice president of the Sovereignty Council, as chair of the government negotiating delegation.
In talks with the Sudanese government, the SPLM demands that secularism be explicitly mentioned in the constitution, or that it endorse the self-determination of the people of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Both provinces have seen clashes between the SPLM and the government since June 2011.
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