Sudan deal a fruit of patience, perseverance

The signing of a final power-sharing agreement by Sudan’s pro-democracy movement and the ruling military council is a historic step that ensures participation of all spectrums of Sudanese national forces and will certainly help consolidate the stability of the political system.

Sudan has re-scripted history with the dawn of civilian rule and it’s no wonder that the signing of the transitional constitution triggered unprecedented celebrations in Khartoum.

The opposition coalition has already named five people as civilian members of the country’s sovereign council to be sworn in on Monday.

On Saturday, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) made it clear that TMC head Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, his deputy General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and Lieutenant General Yasser Al Atta will serve as three of the five military members.

With the loss of most of its oil production to the newly independent South Sudan in 2011, the country had lost more than half of its foreign exchange earnings leading to a chronic shortage of hard currency that led to spiralling inflation and frequent shortages of imported commodities.

A tripling by the government of the price of bread in the face of a chronic shortage of flour was the immediate trigger for the four months of nationwide protests that led to president Omar Al Bashir’s overthrow.

Sudan’s well-wishers are naturally happy with the signing of the long-awaited deal that has come after weeks of tortuous negotiations.

The UAE, on its part, has always stood by brotherly nations at their time of need and extended appropriate assistance. The deeply-rooted, longstanding relations between the UAE and Sudan are well known.

The UAE has extended wholehearted support to Sudan in its quest to create a political system capable of achieving the development of the state and driving the country towards a prosperous future.

In a statement following his participation in the ceremony held in Khartoum to sign the Constitutional and Political Declarations by the Transitional Military Council, TMC, and Forces of Freedom and Change alliance, UAE Minister of State Dr Sultan Bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber strongly reiterated the UAE’s principled position that supports every effort that achieves security, stability and prosperity for Sudan and its people.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia recently allocated 540,000 tonnes of wheat to the Sudanese people, meeting the population’s basic food requirements for three months.

As per Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) Director-General Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, the food security support provided to the Sudanese people is in line with the wise directives of the leaderships of the UAE and Saudi Arabia to ensure the provision of essential food supplies and mitigate the effects of the current transitional stage in the country.

Both the countries deserve praise for providing timely and all possible support to Sudan in overcoming difficult conditions and achieving economic stability and food security.

As part of the joint aid package, Saudi Arabia and the UAE deposited $500 million to the Central Bank of Sudan, CBOS, evenly split between the two countries, to strengthen the financial position of the CBOS.

The remainder of the aid package will be allocated to meet the urgent needs of the Sudanese people for food, medicine, petroleum derivatives, and seasonal agricultural requirements.

As Dr Al Jaber pointed out, peaceful transition of power through dialogue is the most effective, better and sole guarantee for the development and progress of nations, particularly that chaotic experiments have produced disastrous results on many peoples in the region.