Sudan crisis moves towards hopeful resolution under UN

Khartoum: The first phase of consultations between Sudanese political stakeholders has concluded and a summary document drafting the points of consensus between them would be released soon, the UN Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) announced on Monday.

On January 10, the UNITAMS launched an intra-Sudanese political process to end the country's political crisis and has been in consultations with Sudanese political parties and civil forces in the country. Sudan has been suffering a political crisis since Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan's transitional Sovereign Council, declared a state of emergency on October 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the government.

The initial talks entail broad individual consultations aimed at moving to a second phase of direct or indirect negotiations between different players, UN special representative Volker Perthes told a news conference in Khartoum on Monday.

Since the crisis began, opposition groups have been staging regular mass protests in the capital Khartoum and other cities to demand civilian rule.

The Sudan Professionals Association (SPA) which held the bulk of anti-coup protests has rejected the UN's efforts to mediate peace in country, with the organisation lashing out at the UN for "failing to condemn" the military coup and also not fulfilling the mission given to it under the UN Security Council to "support and monitor democratic transition in the country". 

The group has insisted that the military must withdraw from politics and allow a fully civilian government to lead the transition.

"We have yet to receive any details about the UN initiative," said Jaafar Hassan, a spokesman for the mainstream faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change, the leading civilian pro-democracy group to Al Jazeera. 

"We are willing to take part in the talks on condition that the purpose is to resume the democratic transition and remove the coup regime, but we are against it if these talks seek to legitimise the coup regime," he told the AFP news agency on Monday.

The African nation has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove al-Bashir and his government in April 2019. The upheaval in Sudan worsened last month following the resignation of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was the civilian face of the transitional government during the past two years.