Head of Sudan's Coordination of Civil and Democratic Forces (Taqaddum), former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok called for an urgent “roundtable conference” to agree on implementing the principles of the Nairobi Declaration, which he signed with armed movements.
He also urged the warring parties to immediately end the fighting, and the international community to exert more pressure in order to open humanitarian corridors.
Speaking at the opening of Taqaddum’s inaugural conference in Addis Ababa on Monday, Hamdok stressed that his party is seeking to ease the suffering of “the hungry, the poor, refugees and the displaced” and to implement “the democratic program, with the aim of establishing a homeland for all”.
He praised the Nairobi Declaration and called for holding roundtable talks to discuss the Sudanese crisis in all its aspects.
Held under the slogan “Our Unity Makes Peace”, the Taqaddum conference kicked off in the Ethiopian capital on Monday after being postponed for a day as Sudanese authorities tried to prevent some members from reaching the location and arrested others.
On May 18, Hamdok separately signed what was known as the Nairobi Declaration with head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Abdelaziz Al-Hilu and head of the Sudan Liberation Army Movement Abdel Wahid Mohamed Nur.
The declaration called for an end to the war and the establishment of a secular federal state, separating religion from the state, and providing the right to self-determination to the peoples of Sudan, in the event that the terms of the declaration were not agreed upon at the planned roundtable.
Hamdok called on both sides of the fighting “to open safe corridors for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and to confront the looming famine that is threatening millions of our people.”
This famine, if it is not addressed, will lead to the loss of many more lives than those killed in the conflict, he warned.
Hamdok urged the international and regional communities to assume their responsibilities, and to exert pressure on the two warring parties – the army and Rapis Support Forces - to allow the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid, and to prevent the use of food and medicine as a weapon to kill more civilians.
