The African Union has suspended participation in the talks to resolve the political unrest in Sudan that are being supported by the UN.
Its participant in the negotiations claimed a lack of transparency and the absence of crucial political figures from the process.
According to the state-run Sudan news agency, Mohamed Belaish, the AU envoy in Khartoum, “the African Union cannot participate in a process that is not based on transparency, honesty, and non-exclusion.”
AU “would not engage in a process that does not respect all the actors and treat them with full respect and on an equal basis,” he declared.
The UN-led intra-Sudanese discussion process got under way on June 8 with support from the African Union (AU) and the regional group Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
However, once the former government Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition declined to attend its meetings, the conversation was abruptly suspended.
The FFC wants the military out of power and a civilian transitional government in charge.
The 2018–19 Sudanese protests had already lasted several weeks when a wide array of civilian and rebel coalitions of Sudanese groups, including the Sudanese Professionals Association, No to Oppression against Women Initiative, MANSAM, the Sudan Revolutionary Front, the National Consensus Forces, Sudan Call, the Unionist Association, and the Sudanese resistance committees, drafted and signed a “Declaration of Freedom and Change” and “Freedom and Change Charter”.
Throughout the first half of 2019, the FFC supported continuing mass peaceful civil disobedience actions, especially mass street protests for several months. In April 2019, military forces rebelled against al-Bashir and arrested him in the 2019 Sudanese coup d’état.
The FFC continued coordinating protest actions, prior to the June 3 Khartoum massacre by the Rapid Support Forces, and after the massacre. In July and August 2019, the FFC negotiated a detailed power-sharing plan with the Transitional Military Council (TMC) for a Sudanese transition to democracy.
