AU mediators fail to move Darfur talks forward

The rival government and rebel parties in Sudan’s Darfur conflict have concluded two days of high-level talks mediated by Africa Union Chairman and Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso but failed to achieve a breakthrough to end more than three years of fighting. A seventh round of what have so far been largely fruitless peace-talks will continue in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The warring sides first signed a ceasefire for Darfur, a semi-desert region the size of France in western Sudan, in April 2004 but that agreement has been repeatedly broken. Last month the African Union gave the sides until the end of the month to reach a comprehensive agreement on three key stumbling blocks of security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing. In a statement issued on Sunday Sassou-Nguesso praised the talks between representatives of the rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement, and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, as evidence of “the urgency all sides in the Darfur conflict attach to the need to bring about a negotiated settlement”. The meetings “revealed the magnitude, complexity and sensitivity of the issues involved and underscored the unequivocal acceptance by all the parties of the need to expeditiously conclude the negotiations,” said the statement. The conflict in Darfur erupted in early 2003 when rebel forces took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum to end what they call the neglect and oppression of the inhabitants of the region. Aid workers estimate that more than 180,000 people have already been killed in the violence and nearly two million forced to flee their homes in Darfur. And the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Mendez, warned in New York on Friday that violence in Darfur is worsening.