Rebels agree to Nuba ceasefire extension

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has agreed to the extension of a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains region of south-central Sudan, sources close to the rebel group told IRIN. "They [SPLM/A] have agreed to the extension for a further six months following the SPLM/A-Nuba congress," the sources said. In June, the Sudanese government agreed to an extension of the initial six month ceasefire period, Usamah Mahjub Hasan, Second Secretary at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN on Tuesday. The government also agreed that the ceasefire provisions would remain unchanged for the additional period. The government and SPLM/A-Nuba signed the renewable six-month ceasefire in the 80,000 sq km Nuba Mountains region, Southern Kordofan State, on 19 January this year. The agreement followed six days of closed-door negotiations facilitated by the US and Swiss governments in Burgenstock, central Switzerland. The ceasefire agreement states, among other things, that both parties should "facilitate humanitarian assistance" by opening up humanitarian corridors and creating conditions "conducive to the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance". However, humanitarian agencies have warned that bureaucratic issues and delays in implementing some aspects of the agreement had contributed to an erosion of confidence in the ceasefire agreement, particularly in SPLM/A-controlled areas. The government agreed in January to "unfettered humanitarian access to Nuba" but had continued to delay and deny flights into SPLM/A-controlled areas until mid-May - just weeks before the rainy season would make airstrips inaccessible there, Roger Winter of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) told a US Congressional hearing in June. However, humanitarian flight clearance had subsequently been placed under the aegis of the body charged with overseeing the ceasefire - the Joint Monitoring Commission - and not the Sudanese government, leading to "an overall feeling of optimism" in the Nubas, Winter added. Philip Nuer of the Nuba Relief and Rehabilitation Development Organisation told IRIN that although some tools and seeds had been delivered to the Nuba people ahead of the rainy season, delays meant many people had not had time to clear land in preparation for planting. "It [the ceasefire] has been extended, but it doesn't mean people are happy," he said. "Not enough has been done up until now."