Sudanese opposition postpones meeting
The Sudanese opposition has announced postponement of the leadership meeting of the "Democratic National Assembly." The coalition comprises rebels from southern Sudan and opposition parties from the north.
An official at the Sudanese People's Liberation Army said the meeting was postponed until after the meeting scheduled today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa with the coalition leaders in Alexandria.
The official elaborated that SPLA commander John Garang, chairman of the Ummah council al-Sadeq al-Mahdi, and coalition chairman Othman al-Merghani are taking part in the meeting with President Mubarak and Moussa.
Meanwhile, French Minister Delegate to Cooperation and Francophony Charles Josselin arrived in Cairo on his way back from Khartoum to meet with Garang and officials responsible for African affairs at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Earlier, Josselin said that his country has allotted some US $18 million in humanitarian aid for southern Sudan since 1998. In a pre-departure statement before leaving Khartoum, in which he had arrived on Monday night Josselin added that this aid was granted in the context of the European Union, UN organizations and according to a bilateral agreement.
Josselin added that he met during his short visit to Khartoum with officials responsible for humanitarian issues in southern Sudan, governmental organizations and UN agencies, especially the World Food Program which organizes an active air budget to transport aid to Bahr al-Gazelle province which is trying to help distribute food to offset famine.
In the middle of July, Khartoum and the southern rebels announced a cease fire in the south of the country in order to facilitate the aid. However, the round of peace negotiations last week between the two sides ended to failure in Addis Ababa on Friday.
The French minister added that he met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismael and Sudan's social planning minister. They briefed him on developments in the peace negotiations.