No new signatories as Darfur peace deadline passes

Last-ditch diplomatic efforts were continuing in a bid to persuade the two remaining Darfur rebel groups to sign a peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region, after a 31 May African Union (AU) deadline passed with no new signatories. Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur, leader of one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) refused to sign the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) on Wednesday, claiming it did not address their key political and security demands. In a last effort to salvage the deal, Sudanese First Vice-President Salva Kiir will now meet SLM/A faction leaders in the town of Yei in southern Sudan. Noureddine Mezni, AU spokesman in Sudan said the meeting would take place "in the immediate future" and that AU representatives would be present. A local source in Yei confirmed on Thursday that both al-Nur and Minni Minnawi, the leader of the main SLM/A wing, had confirmed their participation. A series of preparatory meetings is to start on Friday. The Darfur negotiations have involved the rebels’ political leaders but various field commanders have expressed different opinions, indicating the increasingly fragmented nature of many of the rebel groups in the region. "Some commanders of the JEM and the SLM/A are already in Addis Ababa and we are trying to create a mechanism to allow them to join the agreement," Mezni said. "The DPA was negotiated among their leaders and was not designed for them to sign." The Chairman of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, would on Thursday "indicate the next steps to be taken", Mezni added. Minnawi's wing of the SLM/A signed the AU-brokered agreement in May, but the two rebel factions refused to accept it during talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, prompting the international community to give them until the end of May to sign up.