Monday, August 30, 2004

Sudan talks end in deadlock

Darfur rebels and the Sudanese Government have ended peace talks in Nigeria in a deadlock on how to address what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Over 1 million people have fled their homes in the arid western region, which is roughly the size of France, since the conflict started 18 months ago.

"There is a big distance between what we think about improving the humanitarian situation in the camps and what the Government thinks," said Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, negotiator for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group.

Rebels and the Sudanese delegation presented their separate analyses of the humanitarian situation to African Union (AU) mediators in the Nigerian capital Abuja, a day before a UN August 30 deadline asking Sudan to address the crisis or face sanctions.

The African Union will offer a draft presentation to try to harmonise the rebels' and Government's positions.
The talks aim to find a political solution to the conflict, which has its origins in land disputes between mostly African farmers and Arab herdsmen.

Both Darfur rebel groups had staged a 24-hour boycott of the talks accusing the Government of killing 75 civilians in Darfur since Thursday and saying Khartoum was deliberately fuelling the humanitarian crisis. The rebels accuse pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia of mass killings and rapes. An AU cease-fire committee has begun investigations into their allegations.

By In Solidarity 30 August 04

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