Sudan’s western rebels wonder whether truce will be renewed
CAIRO, Oct 19 (AFP) — Rebels in western Sudan on Sunday accused the Sudanese government of having violated a now-ending ceasefire more than 47 times since it took effect six weeks ago, and worried whether it would be renewed.
The government “violated the ceasefire more than 47 times in the last 45 days, causing more than 200 deaths,” the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Mani Arkoi Minawi, told AFP in a telephone call.
Minawi, saying he was speaking from Darfur, added that “helicopters on Friday and Saturday bombarded targets of the movement in North Darfur state, killing a rebel and wounding another.”
Minawi also accused the government “of not having respected the terms of the agreement, particularly an exchange of prisoners.”
Khartoum “has freed none of the movement’s 71 prisoners while the SLM has released 79 government prisoners,” he charged.
The minister for presidential affairs, Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohammed Khair, 54, said SLM members were released at the beginning of September. The independent Al-Sahafa daily said meanwhile in mid-September that the SLM had handed over 135 government prisoners.
A 45-day ceasefire was signed September 3 in Chad, which had mediated between the two sides, and it took effect September 6.
Minaw, who says the agreement expired on Saturday, said there were no official contacts for the future of the ceasefire, adding his movement will “wait to hear what the mediator will say.”
Chad’s minister of public security and immigration, Abderahmane Mussa, told AFP Friday that negotiations “aimed at reaching a comprehensive peace” were to begin soon in Khartoum, with Chadian mediators present.
The minister said that in general the ceasefire — which was monitored by a tripartite Sudanese-rebel-Chadian committee — “has been respected.”
Minawi meanwhile invited the embassies of the United States and Britain as well as other European missions to “observe the negotiations in order to reach a comprehensive peaceful solution in Sudan.”
The conflict between rebels and government forces in the Darfur region, a semi-desert region bordering Chad, left around 3,000 people dead and another 400,000 displaced since it broke out in February, according to UN estimates.