A planned border peace conference which was to bring together representatives of the Dinka Malual and Luo communities of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State and the Rizeigat from Sudan’s Eastern Darfur State has been adjourned until further notice, a government official said.
The government of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in collaboration with peace partners and donors had earlier planned to hold the pre-cattle migration and border peace conference on 20 February.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj Monday, the minister of peacebuilding in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Abuor Gordon Nhial, confirmed the meeting was canceled because the Rizeigat community leaders said they needed to go and welcome the deputy chairman of the Sudanese Sovereign Council.
“The peace conference is postponed and the reason is that the Rizeigat delegation told me that they were waiting for the deputy chairman of the sovereign council to visit them first and that they will call the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State governor who will facilitate the next steps for the peace conference,” he said. “They (Rizeigat) are now preparing.”
The Representative of the Dinka Malual joint border peace committee, Atak Noon Anguei, revealed that they were waiting for the Sudanese who said they would communicate a new date.
“The conference was postponed and a delegation that came to us here in Gokmachar told us that they would inform us about the exact dates of their arrival for the conferences,” he said.
On his part, the Rizeigat representative, Bikri Bashir Adam, said the postponement was not from their side because the conference was slated for March and not February. He however said that their traditional leaders were preparing to welcome the deputy chairman of the Sudanese Sovereign Council in the Zapa area of Sudan’s Eastern Darfur State.
“The postponement is not from our side, it was originally planned for March,” he explained. “There was a delegation of our traditional authorities who came last week and I asked them about the exact timeframe for the conference and they said the conference would be held early if the deputy chairman of the sovereign council, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, delayed his visit or it would be pushed if the visit happened.”