عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Sudanese Revolutionary Front Demands One Third of Parliament’s Seats

Sudanese people celebrate after Sudan's ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters file photo
Sudanese people celebrate after Sudan's ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters file photo
TT
20
TT

Sudanese Revolutionary Front Demands One Third of Parliament’s Seats

Sudanese people celebrate after Sudan's ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters file photo
Sudanese people celebrate after Sudan's ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters file photo

Optimism has prevailed in peace talks between Sudan’s government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of armed movements.

The negotiating delegations are expected to reach a final and comprehensive agreement in the power-sharing issue once they solve the prospective Transitional Legislative Council (parliament).

The South Sudanese mediation seems to be optimistic that a major breakthrough, in this case, will be reached within days.

Direct rounds of talks were launched last week between the government and the SRF to obtain the support of the government’s leadership and speed up the process of negotiations on a number of outstanding issues.

The SRF includes Malik Agar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Jibril Ibrahim’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and Minni Arko Minnawi’s Sudan Liberation Army.

Minnawi told Asharq Al-Awsat that there isn’t any indication of significant progress.

“The progress is linked with the proportion given to the armed movements in the transitional parliament,” he stressed and accused the Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change (FDFC) of obstructing the process.

He affirmed that the revolutionary delegation will continue to negotiate with the government to reach an agreement in this regard.

Armed movements demand 35 percent share in the legislative council, to be taken from the 67 percent granted by the constitutional Document to the FDFC, which represents the ruling coalition and of which the armed movements are part.

The government delegation has proposed that all armed movements take part in the Peace Bloc, with 90 seats in the Legislative Council.

It said 50 seats are to be allocated to the SRF, and 40 seats for Abdelaziz al-Hilu and Abdul Wahid al-Nur’s Sudan People's Liberation Movement factions.

The three-year constitutional document governing the transitional period, which was signed between the FFC and the dissolved military council, grants 67 percent of the transitional council’s seats to the coalition forces and reserved the remainder to the non-signatories of the FFC Declaration.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

Gaza's Christians 'Heartbroken' for Pope Who Phoned them Nightly

A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
TT
20
TT

Gaza's Christians 'Heartbroken' for Pope Who Phoned them Nightly

A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian woman walks outside the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Members of Gaza's tiny Christian community said they were "heartbroken" on Monday at the death of Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave and spoke to them on the phone every evening throughout the war.

Across the wider Middle East, Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, praised Francis' constant engagement with them as a source of solace at a time when their communities faced wars, disasters, hardship and persecution.

"We lost a saint who taught us every day how to be brave, how to keep patient and stay strong. We lost a man who fought every day in every direction to protect this small herd of his," George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, told Reuters.

Francis called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Antone said, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war. He would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room, Antone said.

"We are heartbroken because of the death of Pope Francis, but we know that he is leaving behind a church that cares for us and that knows us by name - every single one of us," Antone said, referring to the Christians of Gaza who number in the hundreds.

"He used to tell each one: I am with you, don't be afraid."

Francis phoned a final time on Saturday night, the pastor of the Holy Family parish, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, told the Vatican News Service.

"He said he was praying for us, he blessed us, and he thanked us for our prayers," Romanelli said.

The next day, in his last public statement on Easter, Francis appealed for peace in Gaza, telling the warring parties to "call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace".

'PEACE IN THIS LAND'

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, the superior of the Latin community, Father Stephane Milovitch, said Francis had stood for peace.

"We wish that peace will finally come very soon in this land and we wish the next pope will be able to help to have peace in Jerusalem and in all the world," he said.

In Lebanon, where a war between Israel and Hezbollah caused widespread casualties and extensive damage last year, sending millions from their homes, members of the Catholic Maronite community spoke of Francis' frequent mentions of their plight.

"He's a saint for us because he carried Lebanon and the Middle East in his heart, especially in the last period of war," said a priest in the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish, which was badly damaged during Israel's military campaign last year.

"We always felt he was very involved and he mobilized all the Catholic institutions and funds to help Lebanon throughout the crises that we went through," said Marie-Jo Dib, who works at a social foundation in Lebanon.

"He was a rebel and I really pray that the next pope will be like him," she added.

Francis made repeated trips to the Middle East, including to Iraq in 2021 where he learned that two suicide bombers had attempted to assassinate him in Mosul, a once cosmopolitan city where the ISIS terror group proclaimed a so-called caliphate from 2014-17.

He visited the ruins of four destroyed churches there and launched an appeal for peace.

In Syria, Archbishop Antiba Nicolas said he was holding mass at the historic Damascus Zaitoun church when he was handed a slip of paper with the news.

"He used to say 'dearest Syria' every time he spoke of Syria. He called on all international organisations to support Syria, the Christian presence and the church in Syria during the crisis in the past years," Nicolas said.