The SPLM-North faction based in the Blue Nile led by Malik Agar and Yasir Arman want a settlement without losing face and have been optimistic about the prospects for that...
However as with the fractious Darfuri rebels and those in South Sudan large hold-out sections remain and the majority of the SPLA-N – based in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan under breakaway rebel leader Abdelaziz Adam el Hilu – have refused to engage in the political roadmap agreed by the rival faction of Malik Agar Eyre Gandof and Yassir Said Arman insisting on a return to secular rule as a precondition...
There the DFCF opened talks with those armed groups under the umbrella of the Sudanese Revolutionary Forces (SRF) including: Sudanese Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) led by Minni Arkou Minnawi (AC Vol 58 No 1 Money and the military) Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Gibreel Ibrahim Mohamed Sudanese People's Liberation Movement-North (part of the Sudan Call) led by Malik Agar (AC Vol 60 No 10 Cutting a deal on a knife-edge) The TMC has opened talks with JEM and the SLM-MM and in so doing may be weakening plans for a united opposition front...
The next six months will be dominated by negotiations between the transitional authority and armed opposition groups such as the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi the Justice and Equality Movement led by Jibril Ibrahim and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North whose factions are led by Malik Agar and Yasir Arman (AC Vol 57 No 22 The securocrats get stronger)...
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The dispute pits Nuba supporters of the SPLM-N Deputy Chairperson Abdel Aziz Adam el Hilu who resigned in March against Chairperson Malik Agar's support base among Blue Nile's Ingessana people and against his and Secretary General Yasir Arman's strategy of a coalition with the wider opposition in Sudan Call (AC Vol 58 No 1 Money and the military)...
The Darfur opposition remains split from the rest of the SRF and seasoned Umma Party politician Nasr el Din el Hadi el Mahdi has been given the task of bridging the gap between Malik Agar Eyre's wing which includes Malik's Sudan People's Liberation Army-North and Nasr el Din's Umma and the wing of the Darfur movements led by Gibreel Ibrahim Mohamed Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed el Nur and Minni Arkou Minnawi (AC Vol 56 No 21 Dialogue of empty chairs)...
The LC has 20 members four from each bloc: • the SRF faction led by JEM's Gibreel Ibrahim which includes the two SLMs; • the SRF under the SPLM-N's Malik Agar Eyre; • the Umma Party led by El Sadig; • Sudan Call member parties including the Sudan Congress Party now led by Omer Yusef el Digair who also heads Sudan Call's negotiating team; and four other parties from the National Consensus Forces; • the Civil Society Initiative led by respected ex-minister and human rights advocate Amin Mekki Medani...
Then suddenly as last week's meeting closed the three announced that Gibreel would replace the SPLM-N's Malik Agar Eyre who hails from Blue Nile as SRF leader...
Several opposition participants were already in the Ethiopian capital including Malik Agar Eyre Chairman of both the Sudan Revolutionary Front and of a member organisation the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-North and Yasir Saeed Arman SRF Foreign Relations Secretary and Secretary General of the SPLM-N...
Farah was formerly in the NCP and is a relative of SRF Chairman Malik Agar Eyre Gandof whom he previously challenged for the governorship of Blue Nile State...
