African leaders fail to break Darfur impasse

April 9, 2006 (ABUJA) — Intensive talks involving two African heads of state who tried to bring the warring parties from Sudan’s Darfur region closer to a peace agreement failed to produce any tangible results, participants said on Sunday.

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups have been going on for almost two years and the current round, the seventh, has dragged on in a small hotel on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital since November 29.

Meanwhile in Darfur, where the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven 2 million from their homes since early 2003, violence has escalated to the point that many parts of the vast desert region are no-go areas for aid workers.

The African Union (AU), which is mediating the peace talks, had hoped that a series of meetings with Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Republic would jolt the parties into making new concessions.

Obasanjo and Sassou, the past and current AU chairmen, held all-night talks with the parties in a secluded guest house in the Nigerian presidential complex, and Sassou reconvened with them for a plenary on Sunday afternoon.

“I can’t say that there are any tangible results. … We are back to the stage of consultations between the parties and the mediation at the hotel,” said Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group.

Salim Ahmed Salim, the AU’s chief mediator, was more upbeat, saying the meetings had given new momentum to the talks.

“What the meetings achieved was to build a very positive atmosphere for the continuation of the talks. … The next few days are going to be critical,” Salim told Reuters, adding that “the political conditions are right” for a deal.

APRIL 30 DEADLINE

The AU, which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, has set an April 30 deadline for the parties to reach a comprehensive agreement on the three key issues of security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing. They missed several previous deadlines.

Salim said the parties were now quite close to agreement on a new, enhanced ceasefire proposal that the AU came up with on Thursday to replace an existing ceasefire that is constantly violated by all sides in Darfur.

But he could not say for sure when the parties might sign the new ceasefire.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, on a short visit to Abuja, led the government team in the overnight talks but was not present at the plenary later on Sunday. A government delegate declined to comment on why he did not attend.

Delegates at the peace talks had expressed hope that Taha’s visit could yield some progress as he was perhaps mandated to make new concessions on Khartoum’s behalf.

The JEM and the larger Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), representing mostly non-Arab tribes, took up arms in early 2003 accusing the Arab-dominated government of neglect.

Khartoum retaliated by arming mainly Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, whose campaign of murder, rape, arson and looting caused a humanitarian tragedy. Khartoum denies responsibility.

As well as a peace deal in itself, the possibility of sending U.N. troops into Darfur is at stake in Abuja because Khartoum has said it will consider a transition from an AU to a U.N. force only after a deal is signed.

The AU mediators and the Sudanese parties all say the detailed, technical negotiations have gone as far as they can and political decisions now have to be taken, but so far there is little sign either side is ready for the leap.

(Reuters)