Rebel Visit to Sudan Capital Raises Hopes of End to 8-Year War

(Bloomberg) -- Rebels opposed to Sudan’s ousted leader Omar al-Bashir visited the capital for the first time, fueling hopes the long-time president’s overthrow could resolve an eight-year conflict near the southern border that caused a humanitarian disaster.

Officials from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, including deputy chairman Yassir Arman, arrived early Sunday in Khartoum for talks with the ruling military council. The SPLM-N has fought government forces in the border states of oil-rich South Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2011, demanding greater autonomy in the wake of South Sudan’s secession.

The delegation visits at a turbulent time for Africa’s third-largest country, as Sudan’s opposition pushes for democracy after the army’s removal from power of Bashir in April amid mass protests. Myriad armed groups, too, may sense an opportunity after the fall of a leader who treated insurgencies with an iron fist during his 30-year rule and was indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes while trying to crush a rebellion in Darfur.

Sporadic talks between the SPLM-N and Bashir’s government -- some mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki -- failed to end the conflict in the border states, although violence has waned in recent years. Sudanese authorities have been repeatedly accused by rights groups of scorched-earth tactics that targeted schools and hospitals, uprooted tens of thousands of people and caused severe food shortages. They rejected the accusations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mohammed Alamin in Khartoum at malamin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Paul Abelsky

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