A top Sudanese government official on Monday offered a two-month halt in military operations in strife-torn Darfur to allow for rebel groups to join the peace process.
”The government forces will not conduct military operations in Darfur for the next two months,” presidential adviser Majzub al-Khalifa Ahmed said.
He said the period should be used by rebel groups that did not endorse a May 2006 peace agreement to join negotiations aimed at ending the four-year-old civil conflict and ”catch up with the peace march”.
Khalifa was speaking at a ceremony to mark the launch of the Darfur Transitional Regional Authority (DTRA), a body created as part of the implementation of the moribund peace deal.
The agreement reached in May 2006 in Abuja was signed by the government and only one of three negotiating rebel factions, failing to make any impact. Rebel splinter groups have since flourished and violence spiralled.
Observers have questioned the viability of such a peace agreement and called for further international action, but Khalifa insisted the signatories should press ahead with its implementation.
The Abuja signatories ”are capable of implementing the agreement and achieving peace in Darfur”, the official said. ”The inauguration of the regional authority constitutes a new stage in the history of the Sudan.”
Khartoum ”trusts that the authority will work hard towards implementing the Abuja agreement by building villages, helping IDPs [internally displaced people] return home and carrying out development projects, building roads and providing electricity”, Ahmed said.
The ceremony was also attended by Minni Minnawi, who heads the faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement that signed the Abuja agreement and was consequently appointed as special presidential adviser.
”The authority will as of today [Monday] begin exercising all its security, economic, political and humanitarian duties in addition to extending the basic services to the people of Darfur,” said Minnawi, who is also DTRA chairperson.
Violence has continued to rage in Darfur in recent weeks, with tribal clashes flaring and violence between government forces and rebels threatening to spill over into neighbouring countries.
African Union peacekeepers have also suffered their worst month since being deployed in 2004, with eight casualties.
The international community is increasing the pressure on Khartoum to accept a United Nations plan that would result in the deployment of a robust UN peacekeeping force to prop up the embattled African contingent. — AFP
