Darfur rebels meet in Chad before peace talks

September 19, 2007 (N’DJAMEMA) — Rebel groups from Sudan’s volatile Darfur region gathered Wednesday in the Chadian capital Ndjamena to forge a common position ahead of next month’s peace talks with the Khartoum regime.

Five rebel factions that did not sign up to a May 2006 peace agreement, inked in the Nigerian capital Abuja with the Sudanese government, were gathered for the preparatory talks, Chadian officials said.

“This meeting… aims at bringing Sudanese rebel groups which have not signed the Abuja accord to harmonise their positions and speak in a single voice at the Tripoli conference,” a Chadian official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Conflict in Darfur, combined with the effects of famine, has left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced since Khartoum enlisted Janjaweed Arab militia allies to put down an ethnic minority rebellion in 2003.

It is hoped that the crunch talks in the Libyan capital on October 27 between all the Darfur rebel groups and the Sudanese government might help to bring a definitive end to the violence.

However, the founding father of the Darfur rebellion, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, who does not recognise the legitimacy of several of the other rebel factions, shunned Wednesday’s meeting.

Nur, who currently resides in Paris, had also boycotted talks in the Tanzanian city of Arusha early last month.

African Union emissary Boubou Niang urged the groups gathered in Chad “to do all that is possible to forge a common platform before you leave for Tripoli.

“The international community has placed a lot of hope in you,” he said. UN chief Ban Ki-moon is gathering Friday key players in the Darfur conflict at the United Nations headquarters in New York to build up momentum for a final end to the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region.

“I hope that we will be able to map our strategy and roadmap for the forthcoming political negotiations in Libya,” Ban said, adding: “We will need to redouble our efforts so as not to lose the positive momentum.”

(AFP)