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Africa Subsaharan

Fighting flares in disputed Sudan region

2011-12-06

Sudanese army claims strategic victory in Lake Jau area in its war against rebels in the state of South Kordofan.

See map at article link.

[Al Jazeera] - Fighting has erupted in a disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan, with the Sudanese army claiming a strategic victory in its offensive against rebels in the state of South Kordofan.

The army said on Saturday it had captured camps on a key supply route after deadly festivities.

"Today the Sudanese army took control of SPLA-N (Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North) camps in the lake Jau area," said Sawarmi Khaled, an army front man.

"The fighting took place at around 4:30pm (13:30 GMT). There were a number of casualties and injured soldiers on both sides.

"This is a strategic area because it is a gateway to the south. The SPLA-N receive their weapons and ammunition and supplies through it."

South Kordofan and Blue Nile states served as the ninth and tenth divisions of the southern rebel forces during the decades-long civil war between south and north, but the peace pact that ended the conflict placed the areas they fought for in the north.

Many SPLA-N fighters' uniforms still show the flag of the former rebel group that now governs South Sudan, which voted in a referendum for secession.

Sudan accuses its southern neighbour of arming fighters in the two states and has taken the matter to the UN Security Council, but South Sudan rejects the charges.

Fighting in South Kordofan first erupted in early June, just weeks before the independence of South Sudan, between the Sudanese military and Nuba gangs who fought alongside the former southern rebels.

Saturday's fighting came weeks after rebels in Sudan's Darfur region and in the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile announced the formation of an alliance to overthrow the government of Omar al-Bashir

Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
, Sudan's president.

The rebels said the alliance, called the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, was bent on "toppling the regime of the [Sudan's ruling] National Congress Party with all possible means" and replacing it with a democratic system.

'Heavy bombardment'
The SPLA-N rebels were not immediately available to comment on the army's claimed victory on Saturday. But it follows days of heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
just north of Jau, a lakeside town on a disputed stretch of the north-south border.

Yasser Arman, the SPLM-N leader, has said that Khartoum had launched a major military campaign in South Kordofan earlier this week.

"There is a heavy bombardment against civilian populations and massive displacement," Arman said in a statement.

"This offensive is going to result in a much bigger humanitarian crisis than the last offensive that started in June."

Sudanese troops attacked SPLA-N positions on Wednesday in Buram county with heavy artillery and tanks, according to other rebel sources.

A barrage of army air strikes reportedly killed two civilians and badly injured four others in the area.

The Sudanese government has prevented foreign aid workers and journalists from visiting the region, making it hard to verify information about the ongoing violence in Sudan's two embattled border states.

In addition to the fighting in South Kordofan, there has been evidence of cross-border attacks in recent weeks, the AFP news agency reported.

Witnesses said the army bombed a refugee camp last month in South Sudan's neighbouring Unity state, just south of lake Jau, badly fraying relations between the former civil war enemies.

The UN refugee agency said last week that the number of people fleeing the unrest in Blue Nile and South Kordofan was likely to reach 100,000 by the end of the year, up from about 80,000 now.

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Africa Horn

Sudan Lodges Juba 'Border War' Complaint with U.N.

2011-11-06

[An Nahar] Sudan has lodged a fresh complaint with the U.N. Security Council detailing South Sudan's alleged support for rebels in its war-torn border states, just four months after partition, state media reported Saturday.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, provided "detailed, confirmed information explaining the support of the government of the south for the rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile," the SUNA news agency reported.

It is the second time Khartoum has addressed such complaints to the Security Council since southern independence in July, reflecting the fragile relations between the former civil war enemies.

The letter accused Juba of supplying the rebels in Blue Nile state with "anti-aircraft missiles, tanks, mines, guns and ammunition," as well as "an infantry battalion to strengthen the insurgency in Kurmuk."

The Blue Nile rebel stronghold, which straddles the border with Ethiopia and is also close to South Sudan, was overrun by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on Thursday, after two months of conflict in the politically divided state.

The letter, which was delivered to the president of the Security Council, also claimed that South Sudan was sheltering a large number of rebels who decamped from Blue Nile south of the border to the town of Renk.

Blue Nile and nearby South Kordofan both have strong historic ties to the south and were key battlegrounds in the devastating 1983-2005 conflict between Khartoum and the SPLA, the former southern rebels turned regular army of South Sudan.

Observers have warned that the fighting there risks dragging the two countries into an all-out proxy war and torpedoing bilateral talks on key outstanding issues, including border demarcation and management of the oil sector.

But rebel leader Yasser Arman on Thursday rejected Khartoum's allegations of southern support for the SPLA-North, saying they were part of a "fear campaign" aimed at deflecting attention from the atrocities it had committed.

"The war in Blue Nile is more than 20 years old. The Republic of South Sudan is just four months old... South Sudan is not involved," he told AFP by phone.

"Kurmuk was a battle (that we lost). But Khartoum will never win the war. We are an experienced guerrilla movement. This is just the beginning," he added.

South Sudan's army also denied any involvement in the fighting north of the border, despite the historic connections to the south of the rebels fighting there.

"(They) don't need anyone to help them, they did it themselves. These people were fighting for 21 years in the bush. They were fighting over socio-economic and political grievances against Khartoum," said SPLA front man Philip Aguer.

He insisted that, since southern independence, the SPLA and the SPLA-North were completely separate organizations.

Fighting has raged in Sudan's volatile Border States since June, apparently sparked by the army's insistence on disarming indigenous Nuba troops in South Kordofan not under its control, as Khartoum moved to assert its authority within its new borders.

The conflict spilled into Blue Nile three months later, prompting fears of a mounting humanitarian crisis, given the large numbers of people displaced and the government's expulsion of international aid agencies from the two states.

It also appears to have aggravated the security situation south of the border.

Last week, the SPLA clashed with a rebel militia in oil-rich Unity state's Mayom County, just across the border from South Kordofan, in which around 80 people were killed, according to state officials.

"The commanders of these rebels in Unity state are stationed in Khartoum," and Sudan is not only transporting them across the border but supplying them with guns and landmines, Aguer claimed on Thursday.

Juba has repeatedly accused Khartoum of wanting to destabilize the new country by arming rebel groups, as it did during the civil war, claims rejected by the north.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudan Bans Main Opposition Party amid Sweeping Arrests

2011-09-05

[An Nahar] Sudan has banned the main opposition party, closed its offices and made sweeping arrests across the country, its secretary general said on Sunday, as fighting continued in a key SPLM stronghold.

Always need an target to keep the lads busy. Having lost South Sudan, and attacking their black Muslims being in bad odor, the party of the ruling part has turned its sights closer to home.

"The (ruling) National Congress Party has banned the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in all states and placed in durance vile a large number of its members and seized property and documents belonging to it in different states and localities," Yasser Arman said in a statement.

Arman gave a detailed list of more than 10 party members and local leaders who have allegedly been placed in durance vile since Tuesday in various different states, including West Darfur, Gezira, North Kordofan and Sennar.

"What is happening now, in different towns and villages in Sudan against members and leaders of the SPLM, is something that was organized and planned over a long period, with the aim of ... eliminating the SPLM as a major national and democratic force in north Sudan," Arman said.

Other party members said the government had shut down all the offices of the party's northern branch, the SPLM-North, on Saturday.

The ex-rebel movement is the ruling party of South Sudan, which formally split when the south gained independence from the north on July 9, after decades of devastating conflict.

Oh wait. That actually makes sense. Why would the liberated south need a political party in the country it is no longer part of?

Sudan's deputy information minister, Sanaa Hamad, confirmed that Khartoum had declared the SPLM illegal in the north, saying it was not a legally registered political party following southern secession.

"But this situation will not have an impact on the members of the party as individuals ... The only people who have been placed in durance vile were involved in illegal activities," she told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The move against the SPLM-North comes shortly after deadly fighting erupted in Blue Nile state between the Sudanese army and ex-rebel troops loyal to the elected governor, Malik Agar, the party's chairman.

President Omar al-Bashir

So do they want to join the south, or be independent, or what? I'm confused.

Arman on Saturday called the army's aggression in Blue Nile a "coup" against Agar, the state's elected leader, which, he said, demonstrated that constitutional change in Sudan was impossible under the present regime.

He vowed to fight for regime change through mass protest and armed struggle, in cooperation with the three main Darfuri rebel groups, with which the SPLM-North signed an agreement last month.

Link

Africa Horn

Warring Sudan Opposition Party Rejects Disarmament

2011-07-24

[An Nahar]

Leaders of Sudan's main opposition group, whose men are fighting government troops in South Kordofan, on Saturday rejected calls to disarm and said they would negotiate only via an outside third party.

The northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the ruling party of South Sudan, in a statement also accused the government of seeking to destroy north-south relations just two weeks after formal southern independence.

SPLM-north chairman Malik Agar, his deputy Abdelaziz al-Hilu and the party's secretary general Yasser Arman met in South Kordofan earlier this week for just the second time since the conflict there erupted on June 5.

"The meeting praised and valued... the refusal of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) to be disarmed, in addition to the impressive victories achieved under the leadership of Comrade Abdulaziz al-Hilu," the group said.

For more than six weeks, heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
including relentless air strikes has raged across South Kordofan between government troops and Nuba forces of Evil led by Hilu, who fought with the former rebel army of the south during its devastating 1983-2005 civil war with Khartoum.

An internal U.N. report seen by Agence La Belle France Presse said the conflict was triggered by the Sudanese army's insistence on expelling or forcefully disarming SPLA elements in the border state at the beginning of June.

The report also said the army's systematic attacks, targeting the region's indigenous Nuba peoples, could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, claims dismissed by Khartoum which insists it is fighting an internal rebellion.

Agar signed a framework agreement with top presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie in Addis Ababa late last month that boosted hopes of a permanent political and security settlement for Blue Nile and South Kordofan, both northern states with a large number of SPLM supporters.

But President Omar al-Bashir

Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president. Omar's peculiar talent lies in starting conflict. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its imminent secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
dealt a blow to those hopes when he said three days later that he had ordered the army to cleanse South Kordofan of rebels.

A majority of National Congress Party (NCP) members also voted to reject the accord, in a sign of growing disunity within the north's ruling party.

"The leadership of the NCP takes full responsibility for what results from its rejection of the Addis Ababa framework agreement, especially its insistence on war as a means to resolve the dispute," the SPLM-north said.

"A peaceful negotiated solution remains the best option for the people of Sudan," it said, adding that the party would negotiate only through a third party and outside Sudan.

Separately, the SPLM-north accused the NCP of working to destroy the relationship between Juba and Khartoum by threatening to expel "millions" of southerners from the north and preventing food and fuel from reaching the south.

Earlier this week, Sudan's parliament adopted a law that cancels the Sudanese nationality of most southerners residing in the north, thought to number more than one million, leaving them without any legal basis to stay.

And in May, Khartoum restricted supplies of food and fuel to the resource-rich but landlocked and chronically underdeveloped south, forcing prices there to surge.

Bashir insists that he wants South Sudan to succeed, saying in a conciliatory speech at the independence ceremony in Juba on July 9 that "its success will be our success."

Link

Africa Horn

No rush to vote in Sudan after polling extended

2010-04-14

[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese trickled into polling stations on Tuesday to vote in the country's first competitive elections in 24 years, after polling was extended by two days due to a chaotic start.
When the fix is that obviously in it's hard to get the rubes fired up.
Never stopped Hizzoner Mayor Daley ...
"There are few people this morning. There is no rush because people have two more days to vote," said Fawzia Ahmed Mirghani from a polling station in Khartoum.

There were no queues as just a handful of people went into the polling station in a local school to cast their ballots in the landmark election where Sudanese are asked to choose a president, as well as local and legislative representatives.

"There are 1,020 people registered voters in this office. In two days, about 450 people have voted," said Yasser Abdallah, who oversees registration.

"The pressure is off now because of the extension. People don't have to rush in, they can take their time," said Ghada Abdul Baset, one of the staff on hand.

The national election commission on Monday announced an extension of the three-day vote until Thursday, after a chaotic start due to logistical problems on the first day of voting on Sunday.

Before polling started, the credibility of the vote had already been marred by a pullout of the opposition, who accused President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party of rigging the election. With the withdrawal of key presidential challengers, Yasser Arman of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement and former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, Bashir looks to secure a comfortable win.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudan election campaign wraps up amid boycott

2010-04-10

[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his remaining challengers addressed supporters on Friday on the last day of campaigning for elections that have been overshadowed by opposition boycotts.

Bashir wrapped up his appeal for votes in Sudan's first multi-party election since before he seized power in a 1989 coup with a speech in the northern town of Dalgo.

The Sudanese President assured supporters that promises of development will not fade after his electoral campaign, vowing to extend basic services across the whole country, while Sudan southerners claim health and education, not elections are their concerns.

"We will build roads to Geneina (in west Sudan), we have built a road that reaches the border of Ethiopia (in the east)... We are not focused on just one region, we are working for balanced development," Bashir told a rally in Dalgo, north Sudan.

Candidates were making a final push on the last day of campaigning ahead of Sudan's first multi-party election since 1986 which starts on Sunday, when the electorate will vote for president as well as legislative and local representatives.

Landmark elections
The 66-year-old Bashir is counting on the landmark elections to redeem his stature after an arrest warrant was issued against him by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, which has been gripped by a seven-year civil war.

Bashir's resources have allowed him to stage rallies in all corners of the country, eclipsing the efforts of his challengers, two of whom have withdrawn from the race amid accusations that he has diverted state funds to his campaign.

The southern former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement said it was also withdrawing from simultaneous parliamentary and state elections in all northern states except the disputed Blue Nile and south Kordofan districts, after its candidate, Yasser Arman, pulled out of the presidential race.

Former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, who won Sudan's last multi-party election in 1986, has also withdrawn, leaving Hatim al-Sir, of the other main historical northern faction -- the Democratic Unionist Party -- as Bashir's sole remaining challenger of any weight.

Sudanese security forces deployed in strength ahead of Sunday's first day of polling, as did international peacekeepers deployed in both Darfur and the south.

More than 100,000 police officers are to be on duty over the election period, a security official said, as embassies in Khartoum advised nationals to adopt "precautionary measures," like stocking up on food and fuel.

The 66-year-old Bashir is counting on the landmark elections to reassert his authority after the ICC arrest warrant against him, the first ever against a sitting head of state.

His National Congress controls 52 percent of the 450 seats in the outgoing National Assembly under a power-sharing agreement with the southern former rebels and the northern opposition.

Beshir on Thursday promised an exemplary election.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudan's opposition Umma Party declares poll boycott

2010-04-09

[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's Umma Party leader Sadeq al-Mahdy on Thursday agreed to his party's decision to boycott the upcoming elections. Umma Party, one of the main opposition parties, said late Wednesday it would boycott next week's presidential, legislative and gubernatorial polls, blighting the credibility of Sudan's first multi-party polls in 24 years.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had hoped to win the Apr.11 polls in defiance of an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest to legitimize his rule in Africa's largest country.

"The elections will be fair and free and clean and exemplary," Bashir told a large gathering in northern Sudan on Thursday.

They will be clean, because "elections are a religious duty," the Islamist-leaning leader said at the event, which was broadcast on state television.

Umma Party
"We have decided to boycott the electoral process at all levels," Sarah Nugdalla, head of Umma's political bureau, told a group of journalists after a party meeting on Wednesday in Omdurman, across the River Nile from Khartoum.

The credibility of the three-day elections was already in doubt after another opposition party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, widened its boycott of the vote and EU monitors pulled out of Darfur.

Umma was among a group of opposition parties that had given the Sudanese government four days from Apr. 2 to put into place key reforms in return for a pledge to take part in that elections that would be pushed back to May.

"The political bureau discussed the issue over the past two days," Nugdalla said.

"Several points of view were heard. In the end, we came to the conclusion that our conditions for postponing the elections had not been accepted."

Nugdallah said Umma party leader Mahdi had been granted the right to "take action in the national interests," but three party officials said this would not affect the decision to boycott the elections.

Two party sources earlier said Mahdi may consider taking a position similar to that of the ex-southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which on Tuesday announced a boycott in the north, except in the central Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

Boycott
Mahdi was the last democratically elected leader of Sudan in 1986 and was one of Bashir's two main challengers in the presidential polls.

Umma had won the previous legislative elections in 1986, only to be removed from power later by current president Bashir.

The upcoming presidential, legislative and local elections are seen as a prelude to a referendum on independence for southern Sudan that is scheduled for January 2011.

But the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement said late on Tuesday that it was extending its boycott of the election to include the northern states in Sudan including Darfur.

However, it still plans to field candidates in the sensitive border states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where it enjoys support.

Umma's leader, former prime minister Sadek al-Mahdi, met Wednesday with SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum, before the party's decision to boycott the elections was announced.

The Democratic Unionist Party, which came second to Umma in the 1986 contest, said on Tuesday it would present Hatim al-Sir as presidential candidate, after an initial decision to boycott.

The favorite to threaten Bashir, SPLM candidate Yasser Arman, withdrew last week citing major fraud and the continuing conflict in Darfur, sparking a crisis of confidence in the elections and leaving a loose opposition alliance in disarray.

On Wednesday the biggest international observer mission, from the European Union, said it was withdrawing its observers from war-torn Darfur because fighting and kidnappings were restricting the movement of its staff, undermining their ability to observe election preparations.

The Communist Party, the Umma breakaway Reform and Renewal and other smaller parties announced a full boycott last week.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudan opposition parties join election boycott

2010-04-02

Sudan's main opposition parties have withdrawn from presidential elections, a senior member of one of the groups said on Thursday, a move that could wreck the looming vote and damage a faltering peace process.

"On the level of the candidates of the Presidency of the Republic, most of them (Sudan's opposition groups) decided to withdraw," said Mohamed Zaki, head of office for Sadeq al-Mahdi, leader of the opposition Umma party.

Zaki said only five independents and representatives of smaller parties were still in the race against incumbent President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in the oil-producing state.

Zaki said there was still a chance the main opposition candidates would review their decision if the government agreed to an overhaul of the country's National Elections Commission, and responded to their complaints of widespread fraud.

Sudan's presidential and legislative elections, due in less than two weeks, are central to the implementation of a 2005 peace accord that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

Thursday's announcement came a day after south Sudan's leading party, the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), withdrew its candidate, Yasser Arman, from the presidential poll, in protest against electoral irregularities and insecurity in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudan's Bashir faces 9 rivals in April 11 poll

2010-01-31

[Al Arabiya Latest] Nine candidates have been approved to run against President Omar al-Bashir in Sudan's April 11 polls, the electoral commission said on Saturday after rejecting three hopefuls.

The presidential vote is to be held in conjunction with parliamentary and regional elections as part of the troubled African country's first multi-party ballot since 1986.

"We announce today the primary list of candidates for the presidency. We received 13 requests (and) 10 of them were accepted," Al-Hadi Mohammed Ahmed of the electoral commission told reporters.

The candidates include former premier and Islamist Umma party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was ousted in 1989 in a military coup led by Bashir, and Yasser Arman of the southern ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

The remaining candidates belong to smaller parties, and two are independents.

The nominees who were turned down--including Fatima Ahmed Abdelmahmud, the first woman to attempt to run for the presidency -- have a week to contest the commission's decision.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudan passes bill for south independence vote

2009-12-24

[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's parliament on Tuesday passed a long-awaited bill setting out the conditions in which a

" What happened today is the worst violation against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and from today we will not participate in parliamentary sessions until this matter is resolved "

Yasser Arman, SPLM

January 2011 referendum on independence for the country's oil-producing south would be considered to be valid.

MPs from the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and other southern parties withdrew from the parliamentary session in protest at a clause that would allow diaspora southerners to cast absentee ballots.

According to the bill, 60 percent of the southern Sudanese electorate will have to turn out to make the referendum legitimate. South Sudan will split away from the north if more than half of voters choose independence.

SPLM deputy secretary general Yasser Arman called the vote a breach of a 2005 power-sharing accord and threatened a boycott of parliament until the legislation was revisited.

"What happened today is the worst violation against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and from today we will not participate in parliamentary sessions until this matter is resolved," he told a media conference.

Link

Africa Horn

Angry protesters torch Sudan ruling party offices

2009-12-08

[Al Arabiya Latest] Protesters in south Sudan torched offices of the country's ruling National Congress Party after southern leaders were arrested in the capital on Monday, a southern government official said.

Offices were set ablaze in Wau and Rumbek, two provincial capitals, the source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"The National Congress Party headquarters in both Rumbek and in Wau are on fire," the official said."The protestors are angry at the arrest of the SPLM secretary general and other leaders in Khartoum."

Sudanese police earlier arrested several top figures of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement during an unauthorized protest outside parliament, including SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum.

Riot police earlier arrested two senior members of south Sudan's main party and their supporters who turned out to demonstrate outside Sudan's parliament in defiance of an official ban, officials said.

Yasser Arman, a senior member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) scuffled with police outside the National Assembly and was driven away to a police station, officials said.

Officials added that Pagan Amum, the SPLM's Secretary General, had also been arrested.

However, Arman confirmed his arrest to Al Arabiya by phone, denied allegations that he had scuffled with a police officer and said that peaceful rallies will be held all over the country.

Around 25 SPLM and opposition supporters gathered outside the parliament in the early hours of Monday and were surrounded by police armed with batons and shields.

Khartoum announced in a statement the closure of schools on Monday and a day off for public employees to underline the government's "engagement... towards democratic reform" and to aid voter registration.

The SPLM and opposition parties had called the rally outside parliament to demand democratic reforms in a rare challenge to the president. Sudanese authorities announced on Sunday that the rally was banned.

Khartoum police issued a statement late on Sunday saying the planned protest was illegal as the organizers had not applied for permission to hold it but had merely notified the authorities about their intentions.

"The Security Committee of Khartoum state had a meeting today and decided this demonstration is illegal ... Anybody who participates will be questioned," said the statement.

An official in the opposition Umma party, meanwhile, said the ban showed north Sudan's dominant National Congress Party (NCP) was not serious about letting dissenting voices take part in elections, scheduled for April 2010.

The oil-producing country is due to hold its first multi-party polls in 24 years under the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between Sudan's north and south and created an SPLM-NCP coalition government.

Monday is the last day Sudanese voters can register for next April's presidential, legislative and regional elections.

Relations between the former foes have remained tense and both have accused each other of failing to implement the deal, which also guarantees the south a referendum on independence in January 2011.

Two million people were killed and 4 million fled their homes between 1983 and 2005 as Sudan's north and south battled over differences of ideology, ethnicity and religion. North Sudan is mostly Muslim while southerners are largely Christian and followers of traditional beliefs.

Link

Africa: Horn

SPLM Team Set to Join Darfur Peace Talks

2005-09-27

Former southern Sudan rebels are to join peace talks aimed at ending more than 30 months of civil war in the western region of Darfur, a Sudanese daily reported yesterday. The Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement has already named a delegation to participate in the African Union-sponsored negotiations in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Akhbar Al-Yom said. It added that the team included senior SPLM officials Deng Alor, the new minister for Cabinet affairs, Yasser Arman, a northerner, and Abdul Aziz Hilu from the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan. âThe SPLM is now part of the national unity government and it is illogical to let the National Congress party negotiate alone in the name of the government,â the paper quoted SPLM deputy leader Riek Machar as saying.

The national unity government was formed last week, eight months after the signing of a peace agreement with Khartoum that ended more than two decades of north-south conflict that left some two million people dead. International observers have said that power and wealth-sharing arrangements in the Jan. 9 peace deal could be used as a model to end the conflicts in Darfur and eastern Sudan. The SPLM has expressed sympathy with the cause of the people of Darfur and their demands for greater political and economic autonomy from Khartoum. Sudanâs new Foreign Minister Lam Akol Ajawin said Sunday that his SPLM movement would propose a solution to the Darfur conflict to the government in Khartoum.

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