AU-sponsored peace talks on Darfur crisis set to resume

ABUJA, Dec 11 (AFP) — African Union-sponsored peace negotiations on the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur were to resume Saturday, a spokesman for the continental body told AFP.

Magzoub El Khaliffa Ahmed, Sudan’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and head of Sudan’s delegation, talks with the media (AP).

Assane Ba confirmed that the resumption of talks had been rescheduled to begin at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT).

The talks should have begun Friday but they were postponed by 24 hours due to logistical problems.

“We are having some logistics problems. Some leaders of the movements have not yet arrived (Abuja) and the Chadian co-mediators missed their flights,” Ba said.

Some delegates were already seated in the meeting hall before the decision to postpone the talks was announced.

Early Friday, Darfur’s rebel leaders held preliminary talks with AU mediators ahead of the meeting.

The consultations have been organised to ascertain the state of implementation of the agreements the parties have signed” in N’djamena and in Abuja, added Ba.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare Friday urged the Khartoum government and rebels to halt truce-violating hostilities in Darfur.

Two armed opposition groups — the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement — have been represented at the previous two rounds of talks with the Khartoum government.

It was still unclear Saturday whether a recently identified third rebel group, the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), would turn up as had been reported.

A Sudanese government delegation arrived in Chad for talks on Saturday with the NMRD, the semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) said.

The delegation, led by Investment Minister Al-Sherif Ahmed Badr and comprising politicians and businessmen from Darfur, would hold an exploratory round of negotiations with the rebel group, SMC said.

The AU spokesman said that he was not aware of possibly participation of the third rebel group in the peace talks.

The Abuja talks are aimed at resolving a conflict which is estimated to have killed 70,000 people and driven more than a million from their homes since rebels rose up against the government in February 2003.

On Thursday, the United Nations said its envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, “fears that this round of negotiations… is headed for failure if the parties do not show restraint” and accused the government of breaching a ceasefire.

But African officials have expressed confidence that the talks will make progress towards a political settlement.

Rebels in Darfur rose up against Khartoum 22 months ago, accusing the Arab-led government of marginalising Darfur’s mainly black African population and demanding political autonomy and a greater share of Sudan’s oil wealth.