| | When the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), one of Sudan's main parties and partner in the National Accord Coalition Government (NACG) until last December, signed a peace agreement in Addis Ababa in November 1988 with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) which has been fighting government troops in the south, expectations of peace began to rise in Sudan. But soon these were deflated when Sadiq el Mahdi, the Prime Minister and leader of the Umma Party, and the Islamic National Front (INF), the party of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Sudan rejected the proposals. The DUP had made its continuation in NACG conditional on the Government accepting the peace agreement and so used the UP's refusal as an excuse to withdraw its ministers. Demonstrations and a national general strike took place in the last week of December following an increase of prices of sugar, petrol and other commodities as part of government's attempts to finance an increase in wages and salaries announced a week before. The Government was compelled to withdraw the price increases. |
