AU, mediators meet over over stalled Darfur peace talks

ABUJA, Dec 15 (AFP) — African Union officials and mediators met to discuss ways of relaunching peace talks on Sudan’s Darfur region, after Khartoum agreed to end a military offensive there, an AU spokesman said.

AU monitor leaves a meeting with SLA rebels.

The meeting was being attended by international representatives including the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League, Assane Ba said.

The Sudanese government has agreed to stop a military offensive in Darfur province, which could prompt the two main rebel groups to end their boycott of talks here, AU chief mediator Sam Ibok told reporters earlier Wednesday.

Ibok said the AU was taking steps to verify the information from Khartoum in order for talks to resume.

The Sudanese government and the two main rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) — were not participating in the mediators’ meeting, Ba said.

On Thursday, a joint committee meeting involving all the stakeholders in the Darfur crisis, including officials of the AU Ceasefire Commission, as well as the rebels will further discuss kick-starting the talks, Ba said.

The two rebel groups on Monday walked out of the latest bid here to resolve the Darfur conflict, accusing Khartoum of repeated ceasefire violations.

The AU-brokered talks in Abuja are aimed at bringing to an end the conflict that has raged in Darfur since February 2003, when rebels drawn from the mainly black African population of the region rose up against Khartoum, accusing the Arab government of marginalising their region.

At least 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict and around 1.6 million forced from their homes, in what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis.