Sudan's Sovereign Council chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrived in Juba Saturday for a meeting with South Sudan President Salva Kiir to discuss bilateral relations and the resumption of peace negotiations with Abdelaziz al-Hilu’s Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-N al-Hilu).
Burhan and Hilu discussed in a closed session the declaration of principles which will help launch their formal peace negotiations.
Burhan was accompanied by the Justice Minister, Nasreldin Abdelbari, who participated in the closed session with Hilu and his accompanying delegation.
Kiir's security advisor Tut Gatluak said that the closed session was positive, and the dialogue advanced within the framework of the common understandings on the declaration of principles.
Gatluak announced that the government and the movement will sign the declaration of principles on Sunday, witnessed by Kiir who also sponsors the Sudanese peace talks.
He said that after signing the declaration, the mediation committee will set a schedule for the negotiations.
Official sources revealed that the talks between Burhan and Hilu failed to overcome the differences over the secular issues and security arrangements, which prevented SPLM-N from engaging in previous peace talks.
In March, Burhan and Hilu met in Juba and agreed on the need to resume negotiation to reach solutions accepted by all parties.
SPLM-N rejects the Sudanese government's proposal to separate religion from the state and adheres to its demand of a secular state and the right to self-determination for the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions.
The sources indicate that the SPLM-N refuses to integrate its forces into the Sudanese army unless the issue of secularism is resolved.
Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and Hilu signed a joint agreement in September last year that included the separation of religion from the state in the constitution of Sudan.
The workshop between the government and the SPLM-N in October 2020 failed to yield positive results on controversial issues.
The SPLM accused the head of the government delegation, Shams El-Din Kabbashi of failing the workshop for rejecting the recommendations.
The Juba agreement was signed last October between the Sudanese government and representatives of armed movements within the Revolutionary Front, while the SPLM-N and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdul Wahid Nouri (SLA-AW) in Darfur did not participate.
