Final agreement on Sudan conflict edges nearer

NAIROBI, May 11 (AFP) — Khartoum and southern rebels have agreed on all key issues in peace talks in Kenya, thus paving way to a comprehensive deal to end Africa’s longest conflict, an official from within the mediation team said.

Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang “have agreed on all the key issues,” in the talks, an official in the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediators told AFP by phone.

The official, who did not wish to be named, said that the two leaders “are still meeting (Tuesday night) as drafting on agreed issues continues.”

He added that “they have reached a common agreement” on issues of powersharing, whether the capital Khartoum would be, or not, subjected to Sharia law during the interim period, as well as the administration of three disputed regions — Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile.

“They can agree, but unless they sign, we cannot hold much to their words,” the official warned. He could also not give a date for the expected signing.

In Washington, officials said the two sides had told the United States they had agreed to the terms of a peace deal to end their long-running civil war and would be able to sign a formal agreement “any day now.”

“They have indicated to us that they have reached agreement and that they expect to sign a deal, but we have not seen that happen in actuality yet,” US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

But in Kenya, SPLA spokesman Yasser Arman refused to confirm the latest development.

Top US diplomat for Africa, Charles Snyder, was flying to the site of the peace talks in Kenya on Tuesday to assist the parties in putting the agreement in writing, Boucher said.

The war in Sudan erupted in 1983 when the mostly Christian and traditional south took up arms to end domination by successive Islamic Khartoum governments. The war, coupled with recurrent famine and diseases, has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced more than four million others.