Malik Agar, head of the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, speaks during a news conference in Khartoum, July 3, 2011. Reuters
Malik Agar, head of the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, speaks during a news conference in Khartoum, July 3, 2011. Reuters
Malik Agar, head of the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, speaks during a news conference in Khartoum, July 3, 2011. Reuters
Malik Agar, head of the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, speaks during a news conference in Khartoum, July 3, 2011. Reuters

Africa

Sudan extends ceasefire with southern rebels

Rebels from Darfur are also expected to arrive in South Sudan for talks with Sudanese officials

Reuters

July 28, 2019

  • English
  • Arabic

Sudanese and South Sudanese officials agreed late on Saturday with the leader of an alliance of armed factions operating along their joint border to extend a ceasefire and grant humanitarian access to some areas affected by conflict in Sudan.

Sudan says neighbouring South Sudan has been giving refuge to Malik Agar, one of many rebels in Sudan. The two countries share a long and porous border, and have a history of supporting armed groups on each others' territories after oil-rich South Sudan became independent in 2011.

Sudan and Mr Agar signed a ceasefire on April 17 covering the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions, a week after Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was overthrown after 30 years of rule. That agreement was due to expire at the end of July.

Peace talks will continue as rebel factions from Sudan's Darfur region are expected to arrive in Juba on Sunday from Addis Ababa.

Saturday's talks were attended by Tut Gatluak, South Sudan's presidential envoy on security; General Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo, deputy chief of Sudan's ruling Transitional Military council; and Mr Agar, head of a loosely affiliated group of armed opposition groups.

Sudan faces armed insurrections across the country and protests by citizens enraged by decades of economic mismanagement and habitual human rights abuses by the security forces. Many protesters against Bashir and the military council that succeeded him have been killed.

Sudan's ruling military council and the Forces for Freedom and Change, an umbrella group of Sudanese political and armed factions, agreed a three-year power-sharing deal this month, although many details remain to be resolved.

Mr Agar was not part of that deal. This weekend's negotiations in Juba centred on armed groups operating in regions that share a border with South Sudan.

"The visit by the Transitional Military Council to Juba today has centred on issues of peace negotiations with Sudanese oppositions groups from South Kordofan, Nubia Mountain and Darfur," said Mr Guatlak.

Mr Agar, who heads a group known as the SPLM-North, said he wanted to agree a common position with the Forces for Freedom and Change. In the meantime the ceasefire would be extended and aid agencies given access, he said.

"We ... renewed the cessation of hostilities and opening of humanitarian corridors to the areas that are affected.

"This [negotiation] process has to be done by the President of South Sudan because he has the leverage over armed groups that are operating in Sudan," Mr Agar said.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”