Thabo Mbeki, in his role as chairman of the African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), has invited the Paris Declaration Force for a meeting in Addis Ababa on Friday. The Force is made up of the National Umma Party (NUP) and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).
Mahmud Khan, who heads the AU liaison office in Khartoum, told the Sudanese Media Centre that the meeting’s purpose is to brief the Paris Declaration group on the latest talks held by Thabo Mbeki in Khartoum.
Khan said the invitation was extended only to NUP, rebel movements in Darfur and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North. He said it did not include the National Consensus Force.
The spokesperson for the National Consensus Force, Abu Baker, criticized the group’s exclusion. But he said the Friday meeting would not affect the unity of the Sudan Appeal Declaration.
The SRF rebel alliance, the NUP, an opposition parties coalition of the National Consensus Forces and the Civil Society Initiative signed the Sudan Appeal in Addis Ababa in December last year. It is a political communiqué calling for regime change in Sudan.