JUBA - United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley today congratulated leaders of Sudan and one of the country's rebel groups for agreeing to principles to resolve their conflict including that freedom of religion would be guaranteed to all Sudanese in a civil, democratic federal state.
"It's a great day, a day of peace," Beasley said. "But peace is not made on paper. Peace is made in the heart. And these leaders have come together around the power of the heart. This spirit is the spirit that will carry forward South Sudan and Sudan to a great future for all the children will be blessed because the leaders this day are peacemakers."
"At the World Food Programme, we use food as a weapon of peace. And at the United Nations, we're grateful for the leadership and the support of everyone here," he told a meeting of the two parties in the South Sudan capital of Juba.
"I look to the day that we (WFP) are no longer here because South Sudan and Sudan are not only feeding their own people, but they are feeding all of Africa and the rest of the world," Beasley said. "But that can't happen without the building blocks of peace."
As part of the principles as the basis for resolving the conflict in Sudan, the government and SPLM-N agreed on the establishment of a civil, democratic federal state in Sudan where freedom of religion would be guaranteed to all Sudanese and the country should have a single professional national army committed to protecting national security.
Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of the Republic of Sudan signed the agreement on Sunday in Juba with Abdelaziz Adam al-Hilu, chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). The pact was witnessed by South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Beasley.
Beasley and Sudan Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok visited the Nuba Mountains in Sudan in January 2020 on a confidence building mission and were received by SPLM-N leader Al-Hilu. Beasley used his good offices to facilitate the first visit of Sudanese officials to non-government-controlled areas in South Kordofan in more than nine years.
