Darfur peace deal tabled

A draft deal to end the three-year conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region has been tabled by African Union mediators five days ahead of a 30 April deadline for negotiations to be wrapped up. The 85-page peace agreement has been hammered out in the Nigerian capital Abuja after almost two-years of talks between the Sudanese government and two Darfur rebel groups failed to secure peace. Darfur is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN which estimates that more than 180,000 have died since fighting began in 2002 and two million others forced to flee their homes. The AU deal proposes a Darfurian take the fourth highest-ranking position in the Presidency with the rank of “senior presidential assistant”, a move meant to defuse a deadlock over rebel demands for a Darfurian to be made Vice President. It also includes compromises to break long-running deadlocks over power sharing, security, and wealth sharing. Representatives of the Darfurian rebel groups the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Government of Sudan were presented with the draft deal late on Tuesday night. Last week Chad President Idriss Deby said the ongoing trouble in Darfur had caused instability in Chad where rebel fighters recently intensified a campaign against his government and called for the international community to act. The Darfur rebels allege marginalisation and persecution of Darfur communities by Khartoum-backed militia known as the Janjawid. A ceasefire signed between the government and the rebel groups in April 2004 has been ignored on the ground, according to the UN and AU. On Tuesday the UN Security Council imposed restrictions on the assets and international travel of four individuals it said were a “threat to the region”. Restrictions were placed on Major General Gaffar Mohamed Elhassan, Commander of the Western Military Region for the Sudanese Air Force, Adam Yacub Shant, Commander of the SLA rebel group; Gabril Abdul Kareem Badri, the Field Commander of another rebel group, the National Movement for Reform; and Sheikh Musa Hilal, the Paramount Chief of the Jalul ethnic group in North Darfur.