Sudan peace talks to resume mid-February in Kenya

KHARTOUM, Feb 4 (AFP) — The Sudanese government and the southern rebels will resume peace negotiations in Naivasha, Kenya, on February 17, as scheduled, the state-run SUNA news agency reported Wednesday.

SUNA said the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) would discuss the issue of power sharing as well as outstanding issues concerning the disputed Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile and Abyei regions.

The negotiations were adjourned on January 26 for Eid al-Adha holidays during which the chief negotiator, Vice President Ali Osman Taha, has gone to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.

The chief mediator, retired Kenyan general Lazaro Sumbeiywo, said at the time that the negotiations would resume on February 17.

In 2002, Khartoum and the SPLA struck a breakthrough accord granting the south the right to self-determination after a six-year transition period, and last September both sides reached a deal on transitional security, under which the government would withdraw its troops from the south.

Khartoum and the rebels then signed an agreement on a 50-50 split of the country’s wealth, particularly oil revenues.

Besides the disputed regions, the sharing of power is the other bone of contention still to be resolved.

The war in Sudan, Africa’s largest nation, erupted in 1983 and pitted the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, against the Muslim, Arabized north.

The conflict and war-related famine and disease have claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced an estimated four million people mostly in the south.