African mediators try to rescue Darfur peace talks

ABUJA, Dec 20 (AFP) — African Union mediators met Monday with delegates from the Sudanese government and Darfur’s two main rebel groups in a bid to get a stalled peace conference back on track after a weekend of renewed violence in the war-torn region.

African diplomats told AFP that Ali Triki, a senior Libyan envoy mandated by AU chairman President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, had met with Darfur’s two main rebel groups and was about to hold talks with the Sudanese government delegation to the Abuja conference.

Talks to end the 22-month-old conflict broke down last week when the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) refused to hold further meetings with the government in protest at a renewed army offensive against their positions.

On Friday, the general in charge of the AU military observer force in Darfur confirmed that Khartoum had launched a large-scale offensive into rebel-held territory in the south of Darfur, an arid and poverty-stricken western region of Sudan rough the the size of France.

After coming under intense international pressure, the government vowed on Sudnay to call off its operation and pull its troops back to the positions they held in April, when the warring parties signed a ceasefire deal in the Chadian capital Ndjamena.

But AU officials in Abuja have warned that fighting is continuing around the town of Labado, where on Sunday an African Union military helicopter was fired on by unknown gunmen as it attempted to monitor compliance with the ceasefire order.