Sudan VP, rebel leader start final peace talks in Kenya

NAIROBI, Dec 7 (AFP) — Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) chief John Garang started face-to-face talks in Kenya in what is expected to be the final round of talks to end Africa’s most intricate conflict

An official with the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediation told AFP that Taha and Garang “started face-to-face talks late Sunday afternoon on outstanding issues” in Naivasha, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Nairobi.

The talks are taking place amid intense pressure, notably from Washington, and heightened expectations that a comprehensive peace accord should be reached before the end of December.

This round of talks behind closed doors will seek to solve the three outstanding issues — power-sharing, distribution of wealth and the status of three disputed regions — Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei.

The conflict, which started in 1983, has claimed more than 1.5 million lives and together with recurrent bouts of famine, displaced more than four million others.

The mostly Christian and animist south has been battling to end the domination of the arabised and Muslim north in a war that has been fuelled by vast oil reserves in the south.