The United Nations (UN) has said that it will invite Sudanese military leaders, politicians, and civilian groups for talks aimed at ending the crisis triggered by the military coup in October.
On Saturday, the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) announced that it will launch an “intra-Sudanese political process” to find “a way out of the current political crisis and agree on a sustainable path forward towards democracy and peace.” A statement released by UNITAMS said that the UN Secretary General’s special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, was in talks with Sudanese and international partners to support the talks.
Perthes said that an all-inclusive dialogue is necessary to prevent the country from sliding into further instability and squandering important socio-political and economic gains made since the 2019 revolution that ousted dictator Omar-al Bashir.
“It is time to end the violence and enter into a constructive process”
— UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (@UNITAMS) January 8, 2022
SRSG @volkerperthes is deeply concerned that current political impasse may slide the country further into instability and squander important gains made since the Revolution.
Noting that all measures taken so far have failed to meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people, UNITAMS said that it is time to “enter into a constructive process” to end the violence and political impasse generated by the coup. The statement added that all key civilian and military stakeholders—including armed groups, political parties, civil society organisations, and women’s groups—“will be invited to participate” in the UN-facilitated process.
In October, the military ousted the civilian-led transition government in Khartoum in a coup, sparking widespread demonstrations. Military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency after arresting Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other civilian leaders. Burhan said the coup was meant to ensure Sudan’s stability, which was jeopardised due to infighting between the military and civilian parties.
However, following a UN-sponsored deal between Hamdok and Gen. Burhan, the military reinstated Hamdok as the PM a month later and said that it would release all political detainees. But Hamdok resigned in January, leading to further uncertainty about Sudan’s transition to democracy.
The Kingdom of #Saudi Arabia welcomes the dialogue between the Sudanese parties and commends the role of the United Nations and the efforts of the United Nations Integrated Mission to support the transitional phase in #Sudan. pic.twitter.com/Bkagg0aMZS
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) January 8, 2022
Against this backdrop, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia welcomed the announcement by UNITAMS to facilitate discussions to resolve the crisis. In a joint statement released on Saturday, the Quad urged “all Sudanese political actors to seize this opportunity to restore the country’s transition to civilian democracy.”
Sudanese protesters, however, rejected the UN-backed talks, saying that they would not accept the result of any dialogue that includes the military. Widespread protests erupted following the military coup and demonstrators have demanded that the military hand over power to a civilian government. So far, over 60 people have been killed by security forces following the military takeover.
The civilian-military transitional government was established in 2019 in the wake of Bashir’s ouster. The military signed a power-sharing agreement with the civilian Forces of Freedom and Change coalition, in which the transitional government was tasked with dismantling the Bashir-era political and financial framework and easing the path towards democratic transition.