Darfur talks are unlikely to resume before next year – AU

November 18, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Substantial peace negotiations seeking to end nearly five years of war in Sudan’s Darfur are unlikely to resume before next year, the chief African Union negotiator said on Sunday.

“Substantial negotiations may have to be conducted next year,” Sam Ibok told reporters in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Although mediators would prefer factions to come face to face this year, Ibok said lessons had to be learnt from talks that broke down last month in Libya and that Muslim and Christian festivals would hold up serious work in December.

“We must learn from what happened in Sirte,” said Ibok, referring to the Libyan town where UN and African Union mediated talks collapsed in October.

Mediators would continue to consult all parties to ensure that conditions are favorable to resume talks, said Ibok.

The most important Darfur rebel groups boycotted the talks in Libya.

While Sirte remained the venue, Ibok conceded some initiatives could take place elsewhere following opposition from some rebel groups to Libya playing host to the peace process.

Last week, the U.S. accused Sudan of “foot-dragging and obstruction” on a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force set to deploy in Darfur to oversee any negotiated peace agreement.

Since February 2003, conflict in the western Sudanese region that the U.S. calls “genocide”, combined with the effects of famine and disease, have killed at least 200,000 people and displaced two million.

The Sudanese government in Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died.

(AFP)