Sudan govt starts talks with 3rd Darfur rebel group

N’DJAMENA, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Sudan started peace talks with a third rebel force from its western Darfur region on Tuesday, a day after the main rebel groups broke off formal peace talks.

Neighbouring Chad mediated in the talks between the government and the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), which split from one of the main Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), earlier this year.

JEM and another rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Movement, began a new round of peace talks with Sudanese officials in Nigeria on Friday.

But the splinter group was invited to separate negotiations as JEM had threatened to pull out of the main talks if its former comrades were included.

“We are in favour of serious dialogue … We do not want still-born negotiations,” NMRD President Nourene Barcham told the conference in the Chadian capital.

The group has been blamed for laying a land mine which killed two aid workers in Darfur in October and JEM has said it is simply a collection of outlaws armed by Chad rather than a serious rebel movement.

Rebels took up arms early last year accusing Khartoum of marginalising the western region and using Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to attack non-Arab villages.

The United States has called the campaign genocide and some 1.6 million Darfuris have fled their homes since February 2003.

The two principal rebel groups broke off the talks in Abuja on Monday to put pressure on the government to stop what the African Union — mediating in those negotiations — said were now daily attacks in Darfur, delegates there said.

However, the rebels said they were not leaving the Nigerian capital immediately and were open to informal consultations.