World Bulletin / News Desk

The Sudanese government top negotiator on Sunday blamed the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) for the failure of a new round of talks between the two sides in the Ethiopian capital.

"They [SPLM-N] have been deliberately dragging their feet since 2012 when talks began under the auspices of the Troika [The United States, Norway, and the UK]," Ibrahim Gandour told a press briefing in Addis Ababa.

"They have been doing the same thing ever since," he said.

Gandour said the rebel group had proposed to include issues not part of the agenda of the negotiations such as democracy, humanitarian assistance, election and justice.

The original agenda was to discuss the situation in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

The African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), the mediator, announced earlier Sunday the suspension of talks between Khartoum and the SPLM-N.

It said the stalemate came after the SPLM-N made a proposal fundamentally different from the proposal made by the panel that "rendered an agreement unattainable."

Outlawed by Khartoum, the SPLM-N has been waging an active insurgency against the Sudanese government in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since 2011.

The movement consists of fighters who sided with South Sudan during the civil war, which ended with a 2005 peace treaty that opened the door to South Sudan's independence in 2011.

Humanitarian deal

Gandour lashed out at the rebel negotiators for refusing to abide by the Tripartite Humanitarian Agreement, which was signed in August 2012, to secure the delivery of humanitarian assistance to people affected by the war in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

"They called the agreement dead," he told reporters.

"The agreement forms the basis of humanitarian assistance to needy people in the two areas," added the government's negotiator.

Adnan Khan, UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, had called on both the Khartoum government and the rebels to address a festering humanitarian crisis in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Since the conflict began, some 1.2 million people have been internally displaced or otherwise severely affected by the conflict, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Nearly 240,000 Sudanese refugees have fled the conflict to neighboring countries.