Darfur rebel talks delayed, awaiting new faction

Feb 18, 2007 ( KHARTOUM) — A conference aimed at trying to unite the divided rebels of Sudan’s western Darfur region has been postponed again, this time to enable a new breakaway rebel faction to join the talks, a rebel commander said on Sunday.

Commander Jar el-Neby told Reuters that a faction had broken away from the National Redemption Front (NRF) rebel group and asked to attend the talks, prompting a delay to await their arrival.

“We believe they’ll be a valuable addition to us, and thus we’ve decided to postpone the conference temporarily,” Neby said. He gave no new date for the meeting, originally scheduled for Monday.

Divisions among Darfur’s rebel factions have been a factor in delaying peace talks with Khartoum, and the conference to try to unite their positions has been delayed many times, twice because of government bombardment.

The NRF, a coalition of rebels who rejected a peace deal with the government in May, fragmented after disagreements about whether to accept a ceasefire negotiated last month by Bill Richardson, governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico.

One of the largest rebel factions said on Thursday it had agreed to the ceasefire with the government.

Peace talks between Khartoum and the rebels have faltered in the past, and only one of three main rebel factions signed a May 2006 deal which has failed to stop the violence in the vast and remote region in western Sudan.

Experts say around 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million driven from their homes since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect. Khartoum says only 9,000 have died.

(Reuters)