Darfur: UN chief ban Ki-moon and Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir announced yesterday that new peace talks to end the four-year conflict in Darfur will start October 27 in Libya.
There was no immediate word from Darfur rebels whether they would attend the conference. Most rebels have rejected a peace deal that one rebel faction signed with Khartoum last year, and Ban on his first visit to Sudan has been pressing to get the groups to the negotiating table.
A joint communique issued by the two leaders after their second round of talks in Khartoum stressed the importance of reaching a political solution to the conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million uprooted from their homes.
Ban has pressed hard during his first trip to Sudan to get the splintered rebel groups back to the negotiating table. His joint announcement with Al Bashir signalled that a date and venue have been set - but the real test will be whether rebel movements who in the past refused to join the peace process attend the Libya talks.
The Sudanese government and only one major rebel group signed the May 2006 peace deal in Abuja, Nigeria, but the agreement has not held for the war-torn western Sudanese region. The continued violence has prompted the need to deploy UN peacekeepers.
"The government of Sudan pledges to contribute positively to secure the environment for the negotiations, fulfilling its commitment to a full cessation of hostilities in Darfur and agreed upon ceasefire," said a joint statement issued after the Khartoum meeting.
Achievement
"The UN welcomes the decision to issue invitations from the secretary-general and the chairperson of the African Union commission for the renewed peace talks on 27th October 2007 in Libya," it added. Last month, UN and AU mediators brokered talks in Tanzania between the myriad rebel factions to thrash out a common platform in readiness for renewed talks with the government.
The agreement reached drew the support of the majority of factions, although not that of the founding father of the rebellion launched in 2003, Abdul Wahid Mohammad Nur, who is now based in exile in Paris.
The talks announcement was an achievement of the South Korean UN chief who has made the Darfur conflict one of his top priorities since he took up the job in January.