Mahdi calls for SPLA ceasefire

Opposition leader Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi has called on the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to accept a ceasefire and hold talks. At a press conference in Khartoum, the former prime minister and leader of the Ummah Party said that this would allow various opposition groups to unite in “an unarmed struggle for talks with the government”, Associated Press (AP) reported.

Mahdi told journalists that his Ummah Party had agreed on a direct dialogue with the SPLA, which was yet to commence. He said he would ask the US government - during a visit planned for May - to support a “comprehensive political solution in Sudan”. The US had played a positive role in supporting human rights and humanitarian issues in Sudan, but had “historically committed mistakes because of lacking full awareness of all the dimensions of problems in Sudan”, AP quoted Mahdi as saying.