Opposition figure says exiles should return

A senior Sudanese opposition figure has called on dissidents in exile to return and oppose the government at home. Sidahmed al-Hussein told AFP in an interview on Thursday: “Having lived in-exile for 11 years as a guest in foreign countries, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has become so helpless and inactive that it may yield to any pressures by the host countries,” it said.

Sidahmed al-Hussein, deputy secretary general of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) also said that the NDA, which operates in Egypt and Eritrea, had weakened after President Omar Bashir won support abroad, particularly in Egypt. While the NDA in the past could place conditions for reconciliation with the government, “it was now pressured” by Egypt and Libya “into agreeing to go into unconditional dialogue” with the Khartoum government.

“The Sudanese people have a history of toppling totalitarian regimes with popular uprisings,” he said citing the ouster of General Ibrahim Abboud in 1964, and Marshal Gaafer Nimeiri in 1985.