Sudan government, Darfur rebels sign ceasefire deal
NDJAMENA, April 8 (AFP) — The Sudanese government and rebels from the western Darfur region signed a deal on a ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements after over a year of bloody fighting that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Under the terms of the deal signed in the Chadian capital, the parties have agreed to cease hostilities within 72 hours, for a renewable period of 45 days.
They have also agreed to guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to the stricken region, to free prisoners of war and to disarm militias who have been blamed for much of the violence.
The delegations have committed themselves to meeting again within 15 days in Ndjamena for new negotiations over political issues.
The agreement was signed by all the parties at the talks: the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
The United Nations and the US government have expressed great alarm at the plight of 670,000 people displaced inside Sudan and a further 100,000 who have fled across the border into eastern Chad.
Earlier Thursday, a diplomatic source said the talks stalled in the early hours of the morning on secondary issues relating to the ceasefire accord.
Khartoum’s delegates, the source told AFP, did not want the text to contain explicit references to the Janjawid, Arab militias allied to government troops.
These forces have been accused by the UN and non-governmental organisations of “ethnic cleansing” and “atrocities” against civilians. The rebels insisted that references to Janjawid should be included in whatever accord was reached, the source said.
The rebels in Darfur, a region populated by non-Arab Muslims, contend that their region has been marginalised by the Arab, Muslim authorities in Khartoum.
They have also feared the exclusion of their region from a power and wealth-sharing accord in the final stages of negotiation between Khartoum and separate rebels who have been at war in the mainly Christian south.
That conflict has become the longest in Africa, and has claimed an estimated 1.5 million lives since 1983.