Sudan official expects peace talk break for haj

NAIROBI, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Talks between the Sudanese government and southern rebels are likely to be adjourned at the end of the month because Khartoum’s top negotiator plans to go on the Muslim haj pilgrimage, an official said on Wednesday.

“The Vice President (Ali Osman Mohamed Taha) intends to go on the haj. It begins at the end of the month, the specific date (of his departure) has not been finalized,” Sudan’s deputy ambassador to Kenya, Ahmed Dirdeiry, said.

“If the vice president goes on the haj then the talks will be adjourned.”

Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels have been in talks with the Sudanese government in Kenya for more than a year in a bid to end to Africa’s longest-running civil war.

“The SPLA delegation is ready to continue with the talks until we reach a final comprehensive agreement,” said SPLA spokesman Yasir Arman. “We have not been notified by (mediators) on any adjournment of the talks.”

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

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

The Kenyan mediator at the talks, Lazarus Sumbeiywo, told Reuters he had not been informed of any plans by Taha, the government’s top negotiator and the country’s first vice president, to go on the haj.

All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the haj, a pilgrimage to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, at least once in their lifetime. It is due to begin in early February and lasts for up to two weeks.