Sudan peace talks to resume in Kenya on Monday

NAIROBI, Oct 5 (AFP) — Peace talks between the Sudanese government and southern rebels to thrash out the sticking points of power-sharing and oil resources, as well as disputed regions, will resume in Kenya on Monday.

Delegations representing Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) will meet in Kenyan Rift Valley town of Naivasha, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Nairobi, for talks aimed at ending Sudan’s 20-year civil war.

“From Monday, delegates from both sides will meet in Naivasha and form committees that will address the remaining issues of power-and-wealth sharing and the conflict regions,” chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a retired Kenyan army general, told AFP.

“Hopefully, both sides will agree on the remaining issues,” said Sumbeiywo.

Both parties signed last month a deal which established security arrangements that include integrating some of their forces during an evisaged six-year transitional period, at the end of which the southern Sudanese would vote for unity or secession.

According to Deng Aloor, a member of the SPLA delegation, the committees meeting this week will lay the groundwork for another round of negotiations between SPLA chief John Garang and Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha beginning October 15 in Naivasha.

The deal on security arrangements was struck after three weeks of talks in Naivasha between Garang and Taha.

Sudan’s civil war started when the SPLA took up arms in 1983.

Since then, more than 1.5 million people have been killed and four million displaced.

The conflict takes place against a background of domination of the mainly black African, animist or Christian south by the Arab, Islamic north, but has become increasingly driven by a fight for control of natural resources, notably oil.