Sudan VP to return to Kenya peace talks this week

KHARTOUM, April 20 (AFP) — Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha will return to peace talks in Kenya with southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army within the next three days, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail announced Tuesday.

“The first vice president is continuing consultations with senior government officials as well as various political forces on the progress of the negotiations in Naivasha,” Ismail told reporters.

“He is expected to leave Khartoum for Naivasha in the coming 48 or 72 hours,” he said.

Taha left the talks on Saturday amid deadlock on the legal status of Khartoum under any peace deal with the rebels.

Officials said he would consult with President Omar al-Beshir after the SPLA insisted on maintaining its demands for southerners in the capital to be subject to secular and not Islamic sharia law.

Ismail gave no indication of the results of the consultations.

US officials have voiced mounting frustration with the slow pace of the negotiations aimed at ending Africa’s longest-running conflict and briefly pulled out their representative at the talks earlier this month.