Peace talks to go ahead

Talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) will go ahead this month in Kenya, diplomatic sources told IRIN. Dates for the meetings have not yet been confirmed. “Both sides have agreed to talk and come back to the negotiation table,” the source said.

Accusations and counter-accusations between the government and rebels over the last month have made the peace process fragile. The humanitarian ceasefire in the southern province of Bahr el-Ghazal has not been renewed officially by either side since it expired in July, when the government launched a bombing campaign in the south in the face of an intensified assault by the SPLA. Without monitoring, the humanitarian ceasefire was “a problem”, said the source, as it was not binding and relied on both sides renewing it “from time to time”. As a result, it threatened both humanitarian activities and the peace process. The Sudanese government had sought a comprehensive ceasefire, but the SPLA had insisted that a political agreement should be reached first, the source told IRIN.