Darfur peace talks resume in Abuja on 10 December

The African Union (AU) will launch a fourth round of peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the country's Darfur region, in the Nigerian capital Abuja on December 10, the organisation said in a statement. At the previous round of talks in Abuja from 21 October to 10 November, the Sudanese government and the two rebel movements in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), signed protocols on improving security and allowing humanitarian organisations to operate more freely. The parties signed a provisional ceasefire agreement in April and a team of AU monitors, backed by a protection force which will eventually number 3,000 troops, has been charged with observing the truce. But in practice heavy fighting has continued on the ground. This has so far displaced an estimated 1.4 million people from their homes within Darfur and has sent a further 200,000 fleeing as refugees into eastern Chad. The AU statement, issued on Tuesday, said the previous round of talks, chaired by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in his capacity as AU chairman, had laid the groundwork for a draft declaration of principles on the political issues. “The (AU) Commission hopes that the next Round will enable the Parties to finalize the Draft Declaration of principles and engage in the substantive discussion of the remaining issues on their agenda,” it added. Hopes are high at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia that a deal can be struck soon to end the devastating conflict. It began in February 2003 when indigenous communities in Darfur took up arms, accusing Khartoum of decades of neglect and oppression. In its efforts to pacify the region, President Omar El-Bashir’s government has been widely charged with backing the Janjawid, an Arab militia accused of committing systematic atrocities against unarmed civilians. The UN has described the situation in Darfur as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Tens of thousands of people have died.