U.S. URGES SUDAN’S TRANSITION PARTNERS TO IMPLEMENT KEY BENCHMARKS

OCTOBER 23, 2021

October 22, 2021 (WASHINGTON) – The U.S. State Department on Friday called on Sudanese partners to adhere to the transition’s benchmarks and cooperate together in its implementation towards peace and democracy.

Sudanese on Thursday massively took to the street to support democratic reforms paving the way for the civilian rule in Sudan; and power’s handover to civilians in line with the Constitutional Document governing the transition.

The nationwide rallies took place one month after a failed coup attempt, and days after a demonstration staged by a dissident faction of the ruling coalition calling for military rule.

In a press briefing on Friday, Ned Price, State Department Spokesperson called on the members of the transitional government to heed the calls by the Sudanese demonstrators on Thursday.

He further stressed the need to “move forward in a spirit of dialogue and partnership to build on the momentum of yesterday’s demonstrations”.

“We urge progress on key transitional benchmarks necessary to stabilize the transition and resolve political differences, solidifying Sudan’s historic democratic transition,” he added.

U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman on 21 October stressed that the civilian and military components have to cooperate on the implementation of key benchmarks of the transition instead of seeking to sideline each other.

“If the transition is interrupted, if one side or the other in this (civilian-military) partnership tries to prevail, then the U.S. support for all of these issues, including debt relief, will be in question,” Feltman told The National, a UAE based newspaper.

The envoy was in Khartoum on 3 October for talks with the Sudanese civilian and military officials on the slow implementation of the democratic transition and urged cooperation on the pending issues.

Feltman told The National that he would travel again to Khartoum to inform the Sudanese officials about Washington’s position towards the current stalemate and lack of progress in the implementation of the transition’s goals.

“My trip will just reinforce the strong US support for the Sudanese transition, but also make it clear that our continued support depends on that transition moving forward,” he stressed.

In his briefing on Friday, Price did not respond to a question about when Feltman would visit Sudan. However, his deputy Payton Knopf is already in Khartoum.

Knopf met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi to discuss the challenges facing the democratic transition, peace implementation and efforts to bring the holdout groups to sign a peace agreement with the government.

The US Deputy Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa (…) “called for consensus between all the partners (of the transitional government) to ensure the success of the transitional period to establish a full and solid democratic regime,” reads a statement released by the foreign ministry in Khartoum.

The visiting diplomat further stressed the U.S. support for Sudan to achieve progress in the democratic reforms, added the statement.

(ST)