Darfur peace talks resume in Abuja after delays

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the country’s Darfur region resumed in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Monday, four days behind schedule, with neither side appearing to budge from their already stated positions. Rebels of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and its ally, the Justice and Equity Movement (JEM), continue to insist on resolving what they call “security issues” before signing a protocol on humanitarian assistance. The humanitarian protocol was agreed in principle by both sides during the previous round of peace talks in Abuja in late August and early September, but the rebels refused to sign it. They are demanding the immediate disarming of the pro-government Janjawid militia movement, which draws its members from tribes of Arab nomads. The Janjawid have been blamed for repeated attacks on black African civilians in Darfur which the United States has condemned as genocide. However, Khartoum is insisting that the rebels disarm first. African Union (AU) mediators believe the signing of the humanitarian agreement would open the way for a massive international relief effort in Darfur, a semi-arid region the size of France, to deal with what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The United Nations said last week that a third of Darfur's six million population now required relief assistance following a 10 percent increase in the number of needy people during September. It estimated that 1.6 million people had been internally displaced within Darfur and that a further 400,000 victims of the conflict required aid to be brought to them in their homes. The UN refugee agency UNHCR warned that unless the situation in Darfur were stabilised soon, tens of thousands more refugees could cross into the semi-desert of eastern Chad, where 200,000 have already sought shelter in refugee camps. An estimated 70,000 people have died from hunger and disease as a result of the two-year-old conflict, apart from those who have been killed in fighting. The peace talks in Abuja were originally due to resume last Thursday, but their start was delayed until Monday because of the late arrival of many rebel delegates. “For now we’re just holding preliminary talks with both sides to work out an agenda for the talks,” an AU official told IRIN. “How well we do it might indicate how well the talks will go,” he added. Diplomats are worried that the onset of the dry season will see an upsurge in fighting in Darfur, in defiance of a widely disregarded truce that was agreed in April. The recent emergence of two new rebel groups in Darfur who are not represented at the Abuja talks has meanwhile cast doubt on the ability of the delegates attending the peace conference to negotiate an agreement that will really stick. The United Nations has demanded that the Sudanese government rein in the Janjawid, accusing the Arab militia force mounted on horses and camels, of committing atrocities against unarmed civilians. But it has stopped short of accusing the Janjawid and the authorities in Khartoum of genocide. Last week, the AU agreed to upgrade its team of 150 ceasefire monitors in Darfur backed by a 300-strong protection force into a military force of more than 3,000 men with an extended mandate to protect humanitarian operations and deter armed groups from attacking civilians. Javier Solana, the external relations commissioner of the European Union, said during a visit to the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa on Saturday that the EU and its member states would contribute more than US$100 million towards the $221 million estimated cost of fielding this enlarged force. Said Djinnit, the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, told Reuters on Monday that the first reinforcements of Nigerian and Rwandan troops would be flown into Darfur later this week.