Sudan peace talks resume in Kenya after Christmas break
NAIROBI, Dec 26 (AFP) — Peace talks between Sudan’s government and southern rebels to discuss the remaining sticking points in a peace process aimed at ending two decades of civil war resumed on Friday, mediators said.
“The two leaders have resumed negotiations after the Christmas holiday,” chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a retired Kenyan army general, told AFP by telephone from Naivasha, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of the Nairobi.
A week ago, Khartoum, whose delegation in the talks is led by Vice President Ali Osman Taha, and John Garang, the head of the the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), reached a rough agreement on sharing the proceeds from the country’s 300,000 daily barrels of oil.
Representatives from the government and the SPLA are now tackling the issues of three disputed regions and the sharing of power during an anticipated transitional period of self rule for the south.
The disputed regions — Abyei, Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile state — lie north of the administrative boundaries left over by Britain on independence in 1956 and are claimed by both the government and the rebels.
Most of Sudan’s oil is drawn from the south.
Under power-sharing, the two parties will negotiate how to share political and administrative posts in an envisaged transitional government.
The war in Sudan, which erupted in 1983, has pitted the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, against the Muslim, Arabised north.
The conflict has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced an estimated four million people.
Previous rounds of talks, also in Kenya, have yielded success, first in 2002 when the foes agreed that, after six years of self-rule the south will hold a referendum on whether to join the north — and under what arrangement — or secede.
In September, Garang and Taha clinched a deal on transitional security arrangements.
Under that agreement, Khartoum will reduce its more that 100,000 troops deployed in southern Sudan to at least 36,000 soldiers, giving way to the creation of a combined force of government and rebel soldiers during the transitional period.