Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Fides Agency)- After a series of sudden surprises, a partial agreement was reached at Abuja (Nigeria) to bring back peace to the Darfur, the tormented region of western Sudan, the setting of a tragic civil conflict. The man rebel group, the majority faction of the SLA (Sudan Liberation Army), decided to sign the peace agreement, accepting the latest offers made during the night by the international diplomacy team. This agreement makes less crucial the refusal to sign the agreement by the other rebel group, the JEM (Justice and Liberty Movement), and the minority, hardliner, group of the SLA. The deadline for the agreement (already extended twice for 48 hours) was yesterday at midnight. The talks went on anyway, in spite of growing doubts on the chances to reach an agreement. The JEM was the first to reject firmly the latest proposal made by the international mediators in a series of hard-strung meetings. After the refusal of the JEM, came the one of the hardliners among the SLA, led by Mohammed al Nur.
The peace negotiation has gone on for nearly two years, tiresomely, in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, under the auspices of the African Union, which has offered nearly 7000 peacekeepers. The draft agreement, in 85 pages, presented by the AU, was signed by the government of Khartoum last Sunday, on April 30th, a few hours before the first deadline for the agreement; the rebel groups, however, had not signed.
Among the mediators are the American Robert Zoellick (number 2 of the State Department), the British Minster for international development, Hilary Benn, the leadership of the African Union (AU), besides many African Presidents and relevant figures from the United Nations and the European Union. The mediators’ hopes focused on the pragmatic (and majority) group of the SLA, whose leader is Minni Arcua Minnavi, who had left a door open during the night.
The points hardest to accept were the unity of Darfur (currently divided in three parts); high profile representatives (the rebels want the vice-presidency of the Sudanese State) of one Darfur man in the federal leadership; disarmament of the Arab militias (the infamous Janjaweed, literally “devils on horseback”, who have committed mass-slaughters and horrors against the civil population), the rebels’ introduction into the army of Sudan, and the victims’ reimbursement.
In February 2003, in Darfur, a rebellion of local populations (black and animists) broke out, which was repressed with a bloodshed by the army and, especially, by the Janjaweed. The war caused at least 200 thousand victims, endless horrors, and something like 2.5 million refugees. (L.M.) (Fides Agency 5/5/2006)
