African Union welcomes signing of key Sudan peace deals

NAIROBI, May 27 (AFP) — The African Union (AU) on Thursday welcomed the signing of key peace accords by the Sudan government and the country’s main rebel group.

Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army on Wednesday signed three accords on issues that were standing in the way of a final peace deal to end 21 years of civil war in the south of the country.

AU Commission Chairman “Alpha Oumar Konare welcomes the signing of the three protocols on power sharing, the two areas of the Southern Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains and (a third disputed region,) Abyei,” said the statement sent to AFP from the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Konare “is confident that the parties will now build on the momentum provided by the signing, to ensure that the outstanding issues of implementation modalities and the final comprehensive agreement will be concluded as soon as possible,” the statement added.

The war in Sudan erupted in 1983 when the south, where most observe Christianity and traditional faiths, took up arms to end the domination and marginalisation by the wealthier, mainly Muslim north.

Together with recurrent famine and diseased, the war has killed at least 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.