After holding a series of meetings with local leaderships, a state delegation headed by Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs managed to put a general end to violence witnessed in the east and in the coastal city of Port Sudan.
The Sudanese delegation discussed with local leaders both ending the escalation and holding a national dialogue for matters that concern the country’s east, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Khaled Omar Youssef told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Adopting dialogue and negotiation as a basis for solving problems in the east, stopping the escalation, and removing tension were discussed, Youssef affirmed, adding that the delegation also tackled the political dimensions of the crisis with a local higher coordination agency.
The government delegation headed by Youssef included the ministers of foreign affairs and transport alongside a host of high-ranking officials from the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance.
It held meetings with several mayors and leaders of civil administrations from various parts of Sudan.
Last week, the city of Port Sudan witnessed a wave of civil violence that saw four people killed in a bombing of a city club. The attack is considered a violent precedent in the history of conflict in the city.
The city regularly sees fighting between different local groups.
Previously, tribal groups cut off the land bridge linking the Red Sea port at Port Sudan to the rest of the country and threatened to stop work on the vital harbor unless the central authorities in Khartoum responded to their demands.
The factions represented in the local coordination agency for east Sudan entities reject the terms and conditions of the Sudanese Peace Agreement signed in Juba.
They are demanding the establishment of a new negotiations platform that includes all components of Sudan’s eastern region, not just the groups under the banner of the Revolutionary Front.
