US’s top African diplomat arrives in Kenya for Sudan peace talks

NAIROBI, May 14 (AFP) — The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder has arrived in Kenya to assist Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in their final phase of peace talks, the US embassy in Nairobi said on Friday.

“He arrived in Kenya last night and now he should be on his way to Naivasha,” a town 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Nairobi hosting the talks aimed at ending 21 years of conflict, US embassy spokesman Richard Mei told AFP.

Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader John Garang are currently working on final details of a deal to halt the war that erupted in 1983 and has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced four million other people.

On Tuesday, the State Department said that both sides had agreed to the terms of a peace deal and that Snyder would assist the parties in putting the agreement in writing.