Sudan's Bashir approves SPLM cabinet reshuffle

KHARTOUM - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has approved a cabinet reshuffle, one demand of former southern rebels who withdrew from a coalition government last week triggering the country's worst political crisis in years.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) last week froze participation of all its ministers and presidential advisors in the national government citing a stalemate on implementing key elements of a 2005 north-south peace deal.

Bashir's decision to approve the cabinet reshuffle, which had been delayed for three months, followed his first meeting on Tuesday with SPLM officials since the crisis began.

"The president issued a decree to reshuffle the cabinet and the reshuffle included two presidential advisors, six ministerial posts and six ministers of state in the national government," said Presidential Spokesman Mahjoub Fadul.

He said other issues raised in the letter delivered to Bashir by the SPLM on Tuesday would be discussed with SPLM Chairman Salva Kiir, who is also Sudan's first vice president.

Among those affected by the reshuffle is former SPLM Foreign Minister Lam Akol who will become the minister of cabinet affairs. Many speculated Akol had displeased the SPLM by at times following too closely the line of their former foes, the National Congress Party.

His removal from the powerful Foreign Ministry, observers said, was key to the reshuffle.

The SPLM has about a quarter of the government under the 2005 peace deal which also shared oil revenues, outlined democratic transformation and enshrined elections and a southern vote on secession by 2011.

While the media had focused on the reshuffle demand, SPLM Deputy Secretary-General Yasir Arman had said that was not the main issue.

SPLM Vice Chairman Riek Machar said on Tuesday the party wanted progress on key elements not yet implemented in the 2005 deal including demarcating the north-south border, the status of the oil-rich Abyei region and redeployment of northern troops from the oil fields by Jan. 9, the agreement's third anniversary.

The SPLM also filed complaints about political prisoners, constitutional violations and the NCP using their mechanical majority to push through legislation.

The SPLM were not immediately available to comment on Wednesday's reshuffle.

Sudan's north-south war raged on and off for five decades, claiming 2 million lives and forcing more than 4 million to flee their homes.

It largely pitted Khartoum's Islamist government against mainly southern, Christian rebels, complicated by issues of oil ethnicity and ideology.

Despite the north-south peace deal, southerners have seen little peace dividend or development, as a younger conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region diverted donor funds to the world's largest humanitarian operation there.

Analysts have criticised the international community for neglecting the south in favour of negotiating a settlement in Darfur.