Final Sudan peace deal still not ready – mediator

NAIROBI, July 19 (Reuters) – Mediators in peace talks between Sudan’s government and southern rebels said a permanent ceasefire agreement would not be ready on Monday as expected as both sides were fine-tuning security arrangements.

Delegates and mediators have been meeting in the lakeside town of Naivasha in Kenya since June 27 to smooth out details for a permanent ceasefire to end Africa’s longest-running civil war as agreed in a peace deal on May 26.

The peace accords signed between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) do not cover a separate conflict in the western Darfur region.

“There are a number of things that are not completed and the teams will remain here until they complete discussions on the security arrangements,” chief mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo told Reuters without elaborating.

Sumbeiywo had said in June that the deal would be completed at the latest by July 19.

Neither SPLA leader John Garang nor Khartoum’s chief negotiator, First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, are involved in the process.

Discussions so far have been between an equal number of delegates from each side and mediators from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development secretariat.

Sumbeiywo said the parties were discussing detailed security arrangements proposed within the peace deal. “The atmosphere is very positive and they are doing very well,” he said.

The war started in 1983 when rebels from the Christian south began fighting Islamic government forces in a bid for greater autonomy. The conflict killed two million people and cut Africa’s largest nation in two.

The May 26 agreements removed the last hurdles to a full peace deal by resolving concerns on how the two sides would share power and manage the disputed Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile regions.

The former foes had earlier agreed to separate state and religion, form a post-war army and allow a referendum on independence in the south after a six-year interim period.

In January they reached accord on an equal split of oil revenues, now more than $2 billion a year from 300,000 barrels a day, during this transition phase.