Sudan team to head for Darfur talks in Chad despite reported rebel pullout
KHARTOUM, April 17 (AFP) — A Sudanese delegation will go to Chad for another round of negotiations with Darfur rebel movements despite a report the rebels have pulled out over an alleged government ceasefire violation, a press report said Saturday.
Spokesman Al-Tigani Salih Fidhail was quoted by Al Anbaa daily as saying the government had not been notified by Chad of claims his government had violated the ceasefire and the decision to boycott the talks set for next Tuesday in the capital, Ndjamena.
“We will travel to Ndjamena for the talks unless the Chadian mediator notifies us of a postponement,” Fidhail said.
Fidhail, who is state foreign minister, said the government is “firmly committed” to the ceasefire agreement that it concluded with the Darfur rebel movements in Ndjamena on April 11.
The Sudan Media Center on Friday quoted an unnamed government official as saying the allegation of a ceasefire violation was “false and incorrect” and was aimed at hiding rebel “looting and banditry.”
The government newspaper reported that the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) has declared its withdrawal from the political talks with the government.
It quoted SLM spokesman Mussa Hamid al-Dhaw as saying the Justice and Equality Movement and other groups declared they would not participate in the ceasefire talks in Addis Ababa or the political negotiations in Ndjamena.
On Thursday, the JEM military spokesman, Colonel Abdallah Abdel Karim, said that a day earlier pro-government Janjawid militiamen and army troops had torched villages northwest of the Darfur state capital Geneina, near the border with Chad.
He said 32 civilians were killed, “mostly women, elderly and children.”
The claim could not be independently confirmed.
In a surprise truce agreed last week under Chadian mediation, the government and rebels from the JEM and the SLM pledged to guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to Darfur, free prisoners of war and disarm Arab militias blamed for most of the violence there.
The ceasefire, which began on Sunday and is renewable every 45 days, is the third since the conflict broke out 14 months ago. The first two were short-lived.
The conflict, which began a little over a year ago and which the United Nations says is currently the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights catastrophe. It has claimed more than 10,000 lives and displaced some 670,000 people within Sudan, while another 100,000 have fled to eastern Chad, according to estimates from humanitarian groups.
On Friday, the United States demanded that Sudan immediately permit a UN team probing alleged atrocities to enter Darfur and said it held Khartoum responsible for the safety of all people there.