NEGOTIATIONS TO END SUDAN CRISIS BEGIN

Talks aiming at ending Sudan’s ongoing political deadlock began Wednesday, the United Nations said, although the country’s main pro-democracy alliance is boycotting them over a continued police crackdown on those protesting last October’s military coup.

The joint peace effort is brokered by the U.N. political mission in Sudan, the African Union, and the eight-nation East African regional group Intergovernmental Authority in Development, IGAD. The effort aims to bring the generals and an array of political and protest groups to the negotiating table.

The military’s takeover has upended Sudan’s shortlived fragile democratic transition and plunged the East African nation into turmoil. Sudan had been moving to democracy after nearly three decades of repression and international isolation under Islamistbacked strongman Omar alBashir. A popular uprising pushed the military to remove al-Bashir in April 2019.

The U.N., AU and IGAD launched the process Wednesday with a technical meeting involving the military and civilians. It came after months of separate discussions with an array of groups including the military and the pro-democracy movement.

The U.N. envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, said the groups would discuss a “transitional program,” including the appointment of a civilian prime minister and arrangements for drafting a permanent constitution and elections to end the transition.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the leader of the coup who also heads the ruling sovereign council, welcomed the talks as a “historic opportunity to complete the transitional phase.”