The African Union High Level Implementation Panel on Sudan and South Sudan (AUHIP) announced yesterday that Sudan's ruling party reneged on a commitment it made to attend a meeting in Addis Ababa about the National Dialogue process that the AU panel has been asked to support.

Sudan's President Omar Al Bashir called for a national dialogue to address Sudan’s challenges in January 2014. The AU Peace and Security Council subsequently mandated the AUHIP to support the process by facilitating the involvement of opposition groups.

AUHIP planned to convene a pre-Dialogue meeting about “procedural and process issues” at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa. Though Sudan's ruling party has long insisted that the National Dialogue itself should take place inside Sudan and not outside, it accepted to discuss procedural concerns raised by the opposition at the meeting in Addis Ababa, according to the AU.

The AU Panel explained in a press release yesterday, “During March 2015, the Panel consulted with the various Sudanese stakeholders, within and outside Sudan, including representatives of the governing party and its allies on the planning committee. All the stakeholders who had agreed to participate in the National Dialogue indicated their readiness to attend the pre-Dialogue preparatory meeting which they proposed should be held by the end of the month.”

The AU High Panel went on to dismiss claims that the so-called '7+7' committee was never invited to the meeting: “Specifically, the Panel consulted in Khartoum with the convenor of the '7+7 mechanism of the National Dialogue', as currently constituted, as the body responsible for steering the dialogue process.”

“On the basis of those consultations, the AUHIP invited the stakeholders for the meeting in Addis Ababa on 30 and 31 March, and proposed an agenda which focused solely on the procedural and process issues.”

“Despite initially indicating that they would respond positively to the Panel’s invitation to participate in the Addis Ababa meeting, key representatives of the '7+7 mechanism' later cited several impediments their attendance of the meeting.”

“The concerns raised included the fact that several delegates were already occupied with preparations for the coming general elections in Sudan. The group also wished to ascertain who would be participating at the meeting and to determine their political legitimacy. Furthermore, they were concerned that the meeting might be used by some participants to raise other matters outside of the agreed agenda on process issues,” explains the AU statement.

AUHIP says that it responded to the concerns of the ruling party and other stakeholders but “Regrettably, the Panel’s assurances and interactions with the stakeholders did not result in a change of heart by the group.”

The facilitators announced that they cannot go forward with the meeting as planned without the full participation of the ruling party. Instead, the African Union will suspend the pre-dialogue meeting.

“The Panel is therefore disappointed that the pre-Dialogue meeting could not be held as planned, but it will nevertheless hold consultations with the Sudanese stakeholders who have honoured its invitation, as well as with representatives of the international community, before considering its next steps,” reads the AU statement.

File photo: AUHIP Chairman Thabo Mbeki