On Wednesday, the UN official who chairs the Permanent Ceasefire Commission arrived in Khartoum ahead of the start of the implementation process for the Darfur armed groups’ security arrangements.
According to the Juba Peace Agreement, which was signed on October 3, 2020, the permanent ceasefire commission will be chaired by a United Nations official and comprise five officials from each party, as well as two representatives from South Sudan and Chad.
The head of the Sudanese ceasefire commission has arrived. Suleiman Sandal, the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Higher Military Committee, told the press that he is a member of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). The Permanent Ceasefire Commission, according to Sandal, should relocate to El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. He also emphasized the importance of activating the implementation mechanisms and establishing tangible financial and administrative procedures in this regard; the Joint Military High Committee for Security Arrangements, in particular, had approved it.
On August 30, the Joint Military High Committee met in Khartoum, chaired by the Chairman of the Sudanese Transition Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with army officers and members from armed groups to discuss the enforcement of security arrangements. The group agreed to speed up the implementation of the security arrangements as well as the necessity to find a location for the remaining combatants to convene. According to Sandal, the group discussed administrative problems as well as who would be in charge of overseeing the completion of various tasks. He also revealed that on September 5 and 6, the participants in the implementation process will undertake technical discussions to finalize preparations before the procedure’s effective debut, which would be very short.
In a related development, Sudan’s Sovereign Council declared on Wednesday the start of the Blue Nile implementation phase. The commencement of the process was attended by Malik Agar, a member of the Council and the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), as well as the defense minister, according to an official statement.
