Sudan rebels say see peace deal in December
CAIRO, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Sudan’s main southern rebel group said on Tuesday it expects to sign a framework peace deal with the government this month to end a 20-year-old civil war.
The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the government, involved in what should be a final round of talks in Kenya, are being pressed by Washington to reach a deal soon.
Analysts predict the two sides may not reach agreement by the end of year with several key issues still under discussion, including carving up power and wealth from lucrative oil fields. Agreement has been reached on other issues such as religion.
The conflict, which erupted in 1983, broadly pits the rebels in the mainly animist or Christian south against the Islamist government in the north. Some two million people have died as a result of the war, mainly due to disease and famine.
“If progress has proceeded as expected the two sides will sign a framework agreement on the remaining issues,” Pagan Amum, head of an SPLA delegation visiting Khartoum, told Reuters, adding he expected a framework deal to be signed on December 28.
Amum said the signing of a final agreement would be in Nairobi and there would be a ceremony in the White House so the United States could show its support for the agreement.
Peace talks to end the war in the south have overshadowed a growing conflict in the west of Africa’s largest country where some insurgents say they turned to arms after seeing the success of the SPLA in securing talks with the government.
The leader of one of two main groups in the arid western region of Darfur said he had spoken to SPLA leader John Garang and urged him to include other areas in any future deal.
“There has to be a comprehensive peace deal, not just one between the north and the south. There are other marginalised areas,” Minni Arcua Minnawi, secretary general of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), told Reuters by telephone.
SLA peace talks with the government due to resume in Chad this week have been postponed after the government complained of a ceasefire violation by the western rebel group.