Sudan president sees 'start of end' of Darfur war

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said a ceasefire deal to be signed in Qatar on Tuesday by Khartoum and a major rebel group marked the “start of the end” of the Darfur conflict.

The agreement with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement “marks the start of the end of the war in Darfur”, the president said at a meeting in Doha late on Monday.

He was in the Qatari capital for the signing ceremony of the agreement along with Chad President Idriss Déby Itno and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

A framework deal was already signed on Saturday.

The accord was “the first step towards ending the crisis in Darfur”, al-Bashir said, hoping for a “comprehensive peace” in the troubled region of western Sudan ahead of his country’s presidential and legislative polls in April.

This year will “mark a new Sudan, stable and peaceful, a united Sudan, by the will of its people”, he said.

The devastating seven-year conflict in Darfur has claimed about 300 000 lives and displaced 2,7-million people, according to UN figures. Sudan puts the death toll at 10 000.

Other rebel groups such as a hard-line faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army headed by France-based exile Abdelwahid Nur have so far refused to enter talks with the Khartoum government.—AFP