Sudan peace deal may require 10,000 peace-keepers : Powell

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Sudan may need up to 10,000 peace-keepers if the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army reach a peace deal to end their 20-year civil war, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Friday.

The SPLA, led by John Garang, has been fighting the Islamist government in the north for two decades for more autonomy for the largely Christian or animist south.

Disputes over oil, ethnicity and ideology have complicated the conflict, which has killed two million people and made four million homeless.

The government and the SPLA signed a deal last month on sharing wealth after the war ends, but have not yet agreed on power-sharing and three contested areas — Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile — claimed by both.

“If we get a settlement in Sudan, which I think is likely if we can solve the problem of Abyei … then there will be another requirement there for eight to 10,000 U.N. monitors,” Powell told African journalists, according to a transcript provided by the State Department.

The two sides began a three-week break in their peace talks in Kenya on Jan. 26 to allow a key negotiator to make a Muslim pilgrimage, saying they had made “substantial progress” on resolving disputes over the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile.