Talks on west Sudan’s Darfur region to start in Chad on Tuesday: official

NDJAMENA, March 29 (AFP) — Talks between rebels from western Sudan’s Darfur region and the Khartoum government will begin Tuesday in the Chadian capital Ndjamena, an adviser to Chadian President Idriss Deby announced.

“We think we will have enough time to reach a conclusion, unless there are last-minute problems, by Friday,” Allami Ahmat said Monday.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 between the government and rebels, who complain their region is marginalised. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting, and an estimated 670,000 have been forced from their homes.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, earlier this month described the conflict as “the world’s greatest humanitarian and human rights catastrophe”.

Kapila said most of the atrocities were being carried out by militia groups fighting the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) rebel movement.

The conflict has intensified just as the Khartoum government and the country’s main rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, based in the oil-rich south of the country, are finalising a deal to end Sudan’s wider civil war, which began in 1983.