Hours before the expiry of a May 31 deadline by the African Union to Darfur rebel groups still holding out from signing a peace deal, the pan-African body said on Tuesday it was hopeful the insurgents would beat the ultimatum.
”Until the May 31 deadline expires, we are hopeful that the parties that have not signed will sign the Abuja peace agreement,” AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit told Agence France-Presse .
Only one faction of the main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), signed the peace deal brokered in Nigeria earlier this month, leaving out the SLM’s dissenting faction and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The groups have refused to sign the peace agreement aimed at ending three years of civil conflict in the western region of Sudan, which has left about 300 000 people dead and 2,4-million homeless, arguing that the deal fails to fully address their concerns.
Djinnit said that if they fail to append their signatures on the Darfur peace agreement, the bloc’s Peace and Security council would meet to discuss on measures to take against them.
”We hope that they will exemplify an historic responsibility and to realise that the agreement is a good basis to achieve peace in Darfur,” Djinnit said.
”If not, the Peace and Security Council will meet to see what measures to take.”
The AU special representative in Sudan, Baba Gana Kingibe, said that they were still engaged in efforts to woo the hold-outs to sign the agreement.
”Concerted efforts are still being made with a view to convincing the hesitating Darfur movements’ leaders of the need to append their signatures to the agreement,” Kingibe said in a statement.
The Abuja accord, signed on May 5, provides for a more equitable distribution of power and wealth, the disarming of the pro-government Janjaweed militias and a referendum on the future of Darfu. But the hold-outs say it does not go far enough. ‒ AFP
