Sudan’s ongoing National Dialogue is the first initiative of its kind throughout the modern history of Sudan. 

Unlike the National Reconciliation of 1977, this National Dialogue initiated by President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir aims to map Sudan’s future by bringing together all Sudanese regardless of their political and ideological differences to frankly and thoroughly discuss all key issues and problems of Sudan, including identity, economy, system of governance and freedoms.

Since the declaration of the initiation in January 2014, the government has spared no effort to create a conducive environment for genuine dialogue that takes everyone on board.

To do so, the President has issued Presidential Decrees that provided for amnesty to all political detainees, as well as fully allowing the freedom of expression and political activities except those that threaten the stability of the country.

He has also pledged to provide all needed guarantees for the rebels and armed groups, if they join the national dialogue.

Prior to considering the opportunities and challenges of the national dialogue, it will be good to shed some light on the composition of the National Dialogue mechanisms. To ensure the objectiveness and neutrality of the dialogue process, five nationally respected people have been chosen to facilitate National Dialogue conference.

The five are Former President Abdurahman Swar Al-dahab, Professor Yusuf Fadul, Ibrahim drej, Kamal Shaddad and Ibrahim Monem Mansour. All of them are working hand in hand with the six committees of the conference which are chaired by some other prominent and accepted national figures, namely, Mohamed Al-Amin Khaleefa for peace committee, Al-tijani Al-tayeb, for the economy committee, Omar Abdulaty for the freedom and basic rights committee, Prof. Ali Othman Mohammed Salih for the identity committee, Kamilidrees for the foreign relations committee, Barakat Musa al-Hawaty for the issues of governance and the outcomes of the National Dialogue.

Beside the representatives of the participating political parties, the membership of the National Dialogue conference includes fifty more national figures, most of whom have no political affiliation.

Looking at the composition of the committees and issues to be considered, one will easily come to the conclusion that this national dialogue process is genuine and thematically comprehensive. All committees started their technical deliberations right away after the inauguration of the national dialogue conference on October 10.

However, some of the opposition parties and armed movements have not yet decided to join the Sudanese cortege of national dialogue. As long as the dialogue is run by this spectrum of Sudanese national figures, experts and politicians, there will be no excuse for those who say no to dialogue especially when we take into consideration the guarantees provided by the president.

All armed groups, according to the president, are welcome to join and leave in case they have reservations about the national dialogue process. The back door to the forest is still open for them to go back.

Some are still reluctant to support the national dialogue with the pretext that Sudan National Front and some other parties are out of the game.

Actually, it is them who refused to come (despite all the guarantees), yet it will never be late for them to join this historic event. It is out of question that thenational dialogue is not the only solution for Sudan’s problems, as the fact that war will never lead to a sustainable peace, nor will it end in a win-win situation.

The only way out is dialogue. If not, then what?

The writer is a researcher based in Khartoum