Donors want peace secretariat, ceasefire expansion

The multi-donor IGAD Partners Forum (IPF) last week urged the establishment of a full-time secretariat to support the Sudan peace process and encouraged Kenya to appoint a special envoy to bolster mediation efforts of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Participants at the fourth meeting of the IPF’s Committee on Sudan, which was held in Oslo on 10 March, also voiced their concern that the current aid flow from the donor community to Sudan would be “difficult to maintain in the long run” without an “accelerated and strengthened political process toward peace.”

In a statement received by IRIN on Monday, participants at the meeting also urged all parties to ensure that the current humanitarian ceasefire in Bahr al-Ghazal, which expires on 15 April, is renewed and expanded to all other areas of urgent humanitarian need.

They appealed for a comprehensive ceasefire with an effective monitoring mechanism. Participants said the humanitarian situation in the country, although improved, remained “extremely fragile.”

The meeting was attended by representatives of some 18 donor countries, the European Commission, the UN and the World Bank.

Kenya is chairing the IGAD peace process on Sudan, and the next round of negotiations involving the government and the SPLA is due to take place in Nairobi from 20-25 April.

The IPF statement said the proposed peace process secretariat, to be based in Nairobi, would need to expand the negotiation sessions and conduct meetings “at a much higher frequency.” The secretariat would also organise issues and agenda in advance of meetings to ensure maximum productively of the negotiating sessions.

It said the costs of the secretariat, and of the negotiation process itself, should be shared among IPF members, the UN and others. Participants said they would also consider supporting demobilisation, rebuilding of civil society and other measures that would promote a peaceful settlement to the conflict.

A statement from the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi in response to the Oslo meeting said “donor aid should not stop” and donor pressure should be directed primarily to the SPLA, which was “the party perpetuating the war.” It said the SPLA had hindered the peace process by only agreeing to limited truces. “Establishing a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Sudan has always been the position of the government,” the statement said. The SPLA/SPLM on its part said it wanted a “just and comprehensive” peace settlement. “SPLA/SPLM accepts ceasefire as a comprehensive settlement and hopes that in forthcoming talks we will reach an agreement,” SPLM spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN. Concerning potential future changes in aid flows to the country, he said, “ We want to leave it to the conscience of the donors. We hope that they do not tie politics and humanitarian assistance.”