Darfur peace talks on hold as delegates gather in Nigeria

ABUJA, Oct 21 (AFP) — Delegates from the Sudanese government and the war-torn Darfur region’s rebel groups were arriving in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday to restart African Union-sponsored peace talks.

Rebel delegates and AU officials said that the negotiating teams were expected to arrive over the course of the day and that the talks would probably not begin until Friday or even the weekend.

“We’re prepared to talk peace and achieve peace because this is crucial to solving the humanitarian crisis in Darfur,” Ahmed Tugod [photo], chief negotiator or the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told AFP in Abuja.

Tugod said that three members of his group and two from the
allied Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) had arrived in the city and more were expected.

AU mediators said that a Sudanese government delegation was due
to arrive from Khartoum later in the day on board a chartered jet.

The AU talks were suspended just over a month ago after the two
sides fell out over alleged ceasefire violations and the scope of
the talks, which the rebels would like expanded to seek a full
political settlement for Darfur.

Beforehand, however, both AU mediators and the government side
would like to reach a deal on stabilising the humanitarian and
security situation in the western Sudanese province in the grip of a
20-month-old civil conflict.

If the talks remain deadlocked, the United Nations Security
Council may wade in and revive a threat of sanctions against
Khartoum’s oil industry.

African leaders are determined that this should not happen and
that the continent must prove that it is capable of resolving its
own problems.

On Thursday, the African Union announced it will increase from
465 to 3,320 the number of personnel monitoring a shaky ceasefire in
the Darfur region.

The seven-fold increase was decided Wednesday by the AU’s Peace
and Security Council, which said the expanded African Mission in
Sudan (AMIS) will consist of “2,341 military personnel, among them
450 observers, up to 815 civilian police, as well as the appropriate
civilian personnel,” the AU said in a statement.

The mission will “monitor and observe compliance with the
humanitarian ceasefire” signed in April between Darfur rebels and
the Khartoum government and “contribute to a secure environment in
the region,” where the UN estimates up to 70,000 people have been
killed and 1.5 million others displaced in 20 months of civil war,
the statement said.

War broke out in Darfur in February last year, when rebels rose
up against Khartoum to demand an end to the political and economic
marginalisation of their region. They have demanded more autonomy
and a greater share of the country’s oil revenues.

Khartoum’s response was to give a free rein to a proxy Arab
militia, the Janjaweed, to crack down on Darfur’s black African
people.