Darfur talks to resume by end of Feb – Sudanese Official

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb 21, 2005 (AP) — African Union-brokered talks to end violence in Sudan ‘s western Darfur region will resume by the end of February, a leading official from Sudan’s ruling party said Monday.

Sudanese boy runs while playing at the al-Sereif refugee camp in the outskirts of Nyala in the southern Darfur region. (AFP) .

Kamal Obeid, secretary of the National Congress party’s foreign relations committee, said Sudan has received official notification from the African Union and the Nigerian presidency, which is chairing the talks, that they will resume this month.

The talks are aimed at ending the two-year long conflict that has claimed 70,000 lives since March – mostly from disease and hunger – while 2 million people have been displaced.

“We actually received an official notification from the parties brokering the talks on the resumption of the negotiations by the end of this month, but no specific date has yet been set,” Obeid said.

However, African Union spokesman, Jean Baptiste Natama, said from Khartoum that he hadn’t received any indication of a scheduled resumption of talks.

Obeid added that top government negotiator, Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmad, will head the Kharotum delegation to the talks.

“We expect the two parties to continue discussion of issues handled during the past round,” Obeid said.

Previous rounds of talks, including the last one in December, have failed to calm Darfur, where two shaky African Union-monitored cease-fire deals are in place.

The most recent round of Darfur peace talks began Dec. 11, but rebels boycotted meetings with government delegates two days later, alleging a new government offensive. The talks broke down within weeks.

During the December talks, Sudan said it had ordered its military to stop fighting, but calm has not descended on the vast region, which is the size of France.

Fighting started in Darfur after rebels of ethnic African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. A pro-government Arab militia launched a counterinsurgency.