Sudan's military strike deal with SPLM-North on humanitarian access
First meeting paves way for humanitarian aid in South Kordofan
Sudan's military-led Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement North (SPLM-North) agreed on Saturday to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas under their control.
The agreement, brokered in Juba with the assistance of the South Sudanese government, comes after a visit by a high-level delegation led by Shams al-Din Kabbashi, deputy commander-in-chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and a member of the sovereignty council.
During his visit, Kabashi held a face-to-face meeting with Abdelaziz al-Hilu, leader of SPLM-North. This encounter marks a significant development, as it represents the first publicly acknowledged direct talks between the Sudanese military leadership and the holdout rebel group. (SPLM-North denied reports of a high-level meeting in Asmara last year).
A deal between the Sudanese army and SPLM-North could end a conflict that has continued off and on in the Nuba Mountains for decades (1987-2002, 2011-2018, 2023-2024), though it also risks drawing SPLM-N into conflict with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the renegade paramilitary battling the military regime that it formerly served. Since the start of the SAF-RSF war in 2023, Al-Hilu’s SPLM-N remained neutral, though they clashed occasionally with both sides, seizing vulnerable SAF outposts last year and battling RSF to defend the city of Dilling in January this year.
The SPLM-North are unlikely to abandon their neutrality outright, but a ceasefire with SAF could indirectly assist the latter as it could open up supply routes and free up military resources that could be redirected against the RSF.
Tut Gatluak, South Sudan's presidential security advisor, said in statements following the meeting that the two sides would meet again in a week to sign a formal agreement on humanitarian access. Gatluak, who was a key player in the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, said talks between the two sides stalled in 2022 due to the outbreak of conflict between SAF and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“The meeting discussed the Sudanese crisis and the two parties exchanged visions about solutions to the humanitarian issue, aid delivery, and a political solution. They agreed to facilitate the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid in government-controlled areas and in areas controlled by the movement, each party in its areas of control.”
The SPLM-North, unlike other Sudanese armed groups, is not a signatory to the Juba Peace Agreement, which was mediated by South Sudan following the fall of the Islamist government of Omar al-Bashir. A key demand of the SPLM-North to join the government is the secularization of the state.
Publicly, Saturday’s commitment was limited to humanitarian matters, but the two sides also likely discussed political and military matters.
The agreement between SAF and SPLM-North comes barely a week after the WFP warned that “time is running out to prevent starvation” in parts of Sudan. The UN agency blamed a combination of factors for the crisis, including the bureaucratic stranglehold imposed by Sudan's military junta from Port Sudan.
Humanitarian access to SPLM-North-controlled parts of South Kordofan State is possible via the region’s long border with South Sudan. However, routes via the neighboring states of North Kordofan and White Nile now cross military frontlines, making it difficult to bring food overland from Port Sudan.
Civilians in both SPLM-North-controlled areas and SAF-controlled areas of South Kordofan need humanitarian assistance. The SAF-controlled cities of Kadugli, Dilling, and others are among the hardest hit areas, since these cities were less self-sufficient and more interlinked with the national economy, compared to the SPLM-North areas.