Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa and chief mediator of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) for Sudan, has cancelled plans to visit the conflict-riddled Sudanese states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Mbeki was supposed to visit Blue Nile state last Wednesday and then South Kordofan, but the plan has reportedly been scrapped for unclear reasons.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Sunday, the SPLM-N member at the peace talks in Addis Ababa Dr. Farah Agar confirmed that the visit has already been cancelled.
“The plan by Mbeki’s visit to Damazin and Kadugli is out of the programme now – Mr. Mbeki arrived in Khartoum in the last two days to engage several stakeholders in meetings”, he explained.
He noted chief mediator met with several government officials besides the political parties and civil society organizations in Khartoum, to discuss the national reconciliation and dialogue initiative.
Agar pointed out that the government announced its commitment to bring about peace in the coming round of peace talks if kicks off in Addis Ababa.
Negotiations between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North were scheduled to resume in mid-May. Although this deadline has passed, the mediators have not yet announced when the next round of peace negotiation will resume.