Breakaway Darfur rebels to meet Chad mediators

KHARTOUM, April 25 (Reuters) – A breakaway Darfuri rebel group will present Chadian mediators with its preconditions for resuming any peace talks with Sudan’s government on the conflict in the western region, a rebel official said on Monday.

Rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement wait in their bases in an undisclosed location in North Darfur, Sudan. (AFP).

Sudan’s state news agency said late on Sunday night a government delegation, headed by the minister for investment, was to restart talks on Monday in neighbouring Chad with the rebel National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD).

But Khalil Abdallah, the political secretary of the group said they would be going on Tuesday to talk only to the Chadian mediators, not to the government delegation.

“We will not be talking with the government, even though we heard they were also going,” he told Reuters by telephone from the Chadian-Sudanese border. “We are going to give the Chadian mediators our preconditions before talks.”

“We are going to tell the Chadians we need guarantees of implementation before any more talks,” he said, but declined to spell out the demands.

Chad earlier this month accused Sudan of arming 3,000 Chadian rebels in Darfur and withdrew its services as mediator. But after talks it later said it would resume mediation because Sudan had promised to crack down on the insurgents.

Abdallah said the talks between the government and the rebel group, which controls territory along the border, were still suspended after recent attacks by Sudanese armed forces on their positions in the Jabel Moun area and after Arab militia attacks on villages.

AU officials monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Darfur confirmed clashes between armed forces and the NMRD about two months ago in the rebel stronghold.

The NMRD formed a year ago after several military commanders of one of the two main Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) overthrew its external leadership.

The group signed a ceasefire and humanitarian protocol with the government in December, but Abdallah said it no longer respected those agreements because of the attacks.

The two main rebel groups began an uprising more than two years ago saying the government neglected Darfur and gave Arab tribes preferential treatment over non-Arabs in the arid region. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than 2 million have fled their homes to makeshift camps.