Chad invites Sudan for meeting of AU ceasefire commission in Ndjamena

KHARTOUM, Oct 1 (AFP) — Sudanese government and Darfur rebel delegations have been invited to the Chadian capital on Monday to hear a report from African Union observers on compliance with an April ceasefire between the two sides, Sudanese official media reported.

Both Khartoum and the ethnic minority rebels have traded accusations about truce violations in Darfur which has been devastated by a bloody 19-month civil that has sparked an exodus of refugees into neighbouring Chad.

The United Nations says some 50,000 have died in what it describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Nearly 1.4 million people have fled their homes.

Both the United States and Germany say the government’s bloody clampdown on non-Arab minorities suspected of sorting the rebels amounts to genocide.

Sudan’s acting foreign minister Al-Tigani Saleh Fadil told SUNA that the government was prepared to sign a protocol on humanitarian issues with the rebels “at any time.”

The two sides failed to reach an agreement on access for relief distribution during negotiations in the Nigerian capital in September. Khartoum accused the rebels for sabotaging a deal by insisting that both sides first agree on security arrangements.

Junior foreign minister Neguib al-Kheir Abdul Wahab told the news agency that the government was “committed” to the talks, but would view the participation of the Justice and Equality Movement, one of the two rebel factions, unfavourably.

Abdul Wahab said Khartoum had already informed the African Union that the JEM “was no longer an appropriate partner because of its involvement in the latest coup attempt” against the regime in Khartoum.

Sudan’s interior ministry claimed JEM had a hand in last week’s alleged plot to overthrow the government, which the ministry blamed on the opposition Popular Congress party of jailed Islamist leader, Hassan al-Turabi.