Sudanese foes extend cease-fire by month

NAIROBI, Feb 29, 2004 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese government and the country’s main rebel group the Sudan People’s Liberation Army ( SPLA) have extended a cease-fire by a month, the rebel said here Sunday.

“The two parties on Saturday signed an extension of the cease- fire agreement starting from March 1 to 31,” rebel spokesman Yasser Arman told Xinhua by telephone from the Kenyan town of Naivasha, the venue of the talks.

The truce, signed in Switzerland in 2001, has been extended several times since it came into effect in October 2002.

The Sudanese civil war started as the rebel took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country in 1983. The conflict has left some 2 million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.

The Sudanese government and the rebel began new round of peace talks in July 2002 in Kenya, aimed at ending the longest civil war on the continent.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, leader of the SPLA, have been holding talks in Naivasha, some 90 km northwest of the capital Nairobi, since Feb. 17, trying to bring down the remaining barriers in the way of a comprehensive peace agreement.

Meanwhile, Arman said acting US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder on Saturday held separate talks in Naivasha with Taha and Garang in a bid to encourage the parties to find quick solution to the remaining issues of the talks.