Darfur talks continue over power, wealth sharing row

Dec 10, 2005 (LAGOS) — Delegates at the African Union-sponsored peace talks seeking an end to the 33-month-old crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region continued talks on Saturday in a bid to resolve a row over power and wealth sharing, an AU spokesman said.

“Discussions are continuing today,” the spokesman Nouredine Mezni told AFP.

“All the Sudanese parties, the representatives of the co-mediators, the facilitators and international partners took part,” he said.

Discussions started Friday after being delayed by a day to allow the region’s two rebel movements to reach a compromise with delegates from the Khartoum government on some contentious issues.

The row over power sharing had almost stalled the latest round of talks which resumed on November 28.

Previous negotiations were undermined by ceasefire violations. The United Nations has warned that the Darfur region is falling into chaos, with murder, robbery and rape on the increase.

War broke out in February 2003 when the rebels — the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the JEM — began fighting what they say is the political and economic marginalisation of the region’s black African tribes by the Arab-led regime in Khartoum.

Up to 300,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes in what UN aid agencies have dubbed world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

(AFP/ST)