Sudan official urges rebels to join talks on Darfur

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) – Sudan’s First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha has called on rebel groups in Sudan’s western Darfur to join peace talks in Nigeria on June 10 aimed at ending war in the troubled region.

UN SG Kofi Annan meets with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha (R) in Khartoum on the second day of his tour of Sudan. (AFP) .

“Negotiations will resume in Abuja on 10 June,” Taha said in a live debate on Sudanese television on Saturday night, monitored by the BBC.

“Once again, I call from here on the various factions in Darfur to come to the next round of talks with a true spirit of concord and settlement in order to end the war,” he said.

“We are acting sincerely and with a true desire to reach an agreement at the next round in Abuja to take all the political parties with us to enter the national government,” he said.

Taha was speaking one day after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Sudan to see for himself the humanitarian crisis in Darfur region and hold talks with Sudanese officials.

On Saturday, Annan toured a refugee camp and a burned town in Darfur, hearing calls for African troops to play a bigger role in protecting those living in the region.

Negotiations between the Khartoum government and the rebels had been due to resume in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 30, but U.N. envoy Jan Pronk said the two rebel groups in Darfur had delayed the talks and urged them to get “their act together”.

Pronk said the two groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), were refusing to cooperate with African Union mediators trying to pinpoint rebel and government positions.

The rebels accuse Khartoum of neglect and of using local Arab militia to loot and burn villages, a charge the government denies. Peace talks in Abuja broke down six months ago.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting in Darfur, with more than 2 million forced from their homes.

About 2,300 troops from African Union member states such as South Africa, Rwanda, Gabon, Nigeria and Senegal and hundreds of civilian police are monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Darfur.