Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir formally reopened talks with rebel and opposition groups yesterday but only one significant opposition party showed up, and he urged them to halt a boycott on dialogue in return for a ceasefire. Bashir's government has been confronted by rebellion in its Darfur region since 2003 and a separate but linked insurgency in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan since the secession four years ago of South Sudan. Eighteen opposition groups that had initially agreed to take part in a formal national reconciliation process at its inception in early 2014 pulled out this January, leaving the future of any such dialogue in question.
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