Khartoum frees 54 prisoners as part of truce with Darfur rebels

KHARTOUM, Sept 6 (AFP) — Sudanese authorities freed 54 Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) prisoners as part of a six-week truce with the rebel group, a senior government official said on Saturday.

“The government kept its pledge and freed today all 54 detainees from different government prisons,” Presidential Affairs Minister Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohammed Khair said.

“This signals the start of the ceasefire” signed Wednesday night in Abeche, Chad, following mediation efforts by Chadian President Idriss Deby. The truce came into force on Saturday.

Under the agreement, both sides promised they would free war prisoners held since the start of the sporadic conflict, which has raged in Sudan’s western Darfur region since February.

Khair said Khartoum was expecting the SLM to follow suit, but acknowledged he did not know how many prisoners the movement was holding.

Following the truce, the two sides have agreed to kick off negotiations to bring peace to Darfur and address issues of underdevelopment in the region.

Khair said a 15-strong committee, made up of five members each from the Khartoum government, the SLM and Chad, would hold its first meeting in the Sudanese border town of Teina, in West Darfur state, on Sunday.

For its part, the Sudanese army declared Saturday its commitment to the truce, the state news agency SUNA said.

Spokesman General Mohammed Beshir Suleiman pledged the armed forces would “support and safeguard the implementation of the agreement”.

The SLM has accused the Khartoum government of arming Arab tribes in Darfur to stage attacks on non-Arab villages and says it is fighting for an end to marginalization and neglect of the large, impoverished region by central authorities.

It is not included in the framework of peace talks aimed at ending Khartoum’s 20-year-old civil war with the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.