Sudan official says Taha to break from peace talks

KHARTOUM, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A senior Sudanese government official on Tuesday surprised peace talks between Khartoum and southern rebels by saying he expected negotiations to break for about a month starting this week.

The government official declined to be named but said First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, who has headed Khartoum’s delegation to the talks in Kenya aimed at ending two decades of civil war, would be returning to Sudan to prepare himself to perform haj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

“They were expecting the current round of talks to finish on Thursday to be resumed in the middle of next of month. Ali Osman Mohammed Taha will be returning to Khartoum on Friday to prepare himself for the undertaking of haj,” the official said.

The chief mediator of the talks, Kenyan Lazaro Sumbeiywo, said Taha had not mentioned any upcoming absences or a break in the talks and cast doubt on the comments out of Khartoum.

“He hasn’t told me of any break that is coming up,” Sumbeiywo said. “I don’t think he would want to leave without an agreement. It would mean that he is not serious, and yet I know he is serious in these talks.”

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had said he expected the peace talks in Kenya to reach a final peace deal in early January. Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army promised Washington they would try to reach a deal last year.

“There are two camps in Khartoum: those who want to get an agreement and those who don’t,” Sumbeiywo said. “This claim that he is going for the haj could be from those who are against.”

Taha and other members of the Sudanese government delegation at the talks near the lakeside resort town of Naivasha, some 90 km north of Nairobi, could not be reached for comment.

The two sides have yet to reach agreement on power sharing and the status of three disputed areas claimed by both.

Sudan has said the status of the areas is beyond the scope of the Kenya talks mediated by the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), although both sides have discussed the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei.

The SPLA has been fighting the Islamist government in the north for more autonomy for the largely Christian and animist south. The war has killed some two million people.