Ethiopia hails Sudan peace accord as boost for region

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 10 (AFP) — Ethiopia welcomes the weekend peace accord between the Sudanese government and southern rebels as a source of pride for the region, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

“Ethiopia is proud that the Sudanese managed to sign this peace accord, because we believe in peaceful solutions,” said foreign ministry spokesman Solomon Abebe Tassema.

The accord, which brings 21 years of conflict to a close, was signed in Kenya on Sunday by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and main rebel leader John Garang of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

“Peace in Sudan means peace for Ethiopia, because we are neighbours,” said the spokesman, whose government has insisted that regional peace is the key to fighting poverty and underdevelopment.

Ethiopia, which borders Sudan in the southwest, formed a regional grouping, the Sanaa Grouping, with Sudan and Yemen in October 2002.

Addis Ababa describes its alliance with Khartoum as economic, although diplomats see it as a strategic one aimed at ensuring regional stability, notably with Eritrea, with which Ethiopia fought a 1998-2000 border war.

The war in southern Sudan erupted in 1983 when the rebels, led by Garang, rose up against Khartoum to end Arab and Muslim domination and marginalisation of the black, animist and Christian south.

While religion has fuelled the conflict, vast reserves of oil, mostly in southern Sudan, have played a dominant role in a war that has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and left more than four million others homeless.

The cornerstone of the accord is a protocol exempting the south from Sharia law and granting it six years of self-rule after which it will vote in a referendum on whether to remain part of Sudan or secede.

Oil revenues are also to be shared out equally between the southern and national governments.