AGREEMENT TO RESTART SUDAN PEACE TALKS

Sudan’s interim government and the main rebel group in the country agreed on Sunday to restart peace talks, according to the rebel group and Sudan state news.

The agreement was marked in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, which has mediated past negotiations between the Sudan Popular Liberation Movement North, led by Abdel-Aziz alHilu, and the government.

In a video posted online by the rebel group, the group’s leader joined and raised hands with the leader of Sudan’s interim sovereign council, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, after the signing.

Al-Hilu’s movement is Sudan’s single largest rebel group and is active in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces, where it controls significant chunks of territory.

Sudan’s transitional government has been engaging in peace talks with rebel groups over the past two years, looking to stabilize the country and help its fragile path to democracy survive following the military’s overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 after nearly three decades in power.

In 2020, Sudan’s transitional authorities and another rebel alliance signed a peace deal that was a step towards ending the country’s decades-long civil wars. Al-Hilu’s group participated in negotiations leading up to it but did not sign the final deal.

The rebels have called for a secular state with no role for religion in lawmaking, the disbanding of all of alBashir’s militias and the revamping of the country’s military. Al-Hilu’s group says if its demands aren’t met, it will call for self-determination in areas it controls.