Preparatory meetings for the Civil Front to Stop the War in Sudan are underway in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, with wide participation from political forces and pro-democracy professionals.
The meetings kicked off on Saturday.
The meetings come after more than six months of fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in Khartoum and expanded to include large areas in Darfur and Kordofan.
An estimated 9,000 people have been killed and another 5.6 million forced to flee their homes during the conflict, according to the United Nations.
About 18,750 people were newly displaced within Sudan over the past week, bringing the total number of people displaced across the country since mid-April to 4.57 million, UN figures show.
Siddiq Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, a leading member of the Forces of Freedom and Change, said the convening of the preparatory meetings in Addis Ababa comes within the framework of serious work to establish a broad anti-war civil front.
“We hope that the preparatory committee will be able to agree on the formation of a broad civil front that represent all the people of Sudan who are suffering from the ongoing war,” Al-Sadiq said.
Al-Mahdi, who is also a leading member of National Umma Party (NUP), pointed out that the goal of establishing the Civil Front is to stop the war and establish an entity that brings together all Sudanese civil forces as a representative of Sudanese citizens who reject the war and seek to achieve justice and democracy.
“We hope that the voice of the civil forces will be united during these meetings which are very important,” he concluded.