Sudan’s ruling military council said on Sunday that Ethiopia and the African Union (AU) needed to unify their efforts to mediate between the council and an opposition coalition on the structure of the country’s transitional government.
The generals and the opposition coalition have been wrangling for weeks over what form Sudan’s transitional government should take after the military deposed long-time president Omar Al-Bashir on April 11.
Both Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the AU have been trying to mediate between the sides.
The council’s spokesperson, Lieutenant General Shams El Din Kabbashi, said on Sunday the council had rejected Ethiopia’s proposal, which the opposition coalition agreed to on Saturday, but had agreed in principle to the AU’s plan.
“The AU’s initiative came first,” said Kabbashi, adding that the council had not studied the Ethiopian initiative, which he described as unilateral.
“We asked the mediators to unite their efforts and submit a joint paper as soon as possible to return the parties to negotiations,” Kabbashi said at a news conference at the Presidential Palace.
On the same day, Sudan’s main opposition coalition said that it had received a draft agreement from the Ethiopian mediator and had agreed to all of its points defining the country’s governmental structure for the transitional period.
Babikr Faisal, a spokesperson for the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition, gave no details on the contents of the agreement.
“Our acceptance of the Ethiopian mediation proposal pushes all the parties to face their responsibilities to continue toward finding a political solution,” the coalition later said in a statement.
