Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group will meet Sudanese officials in Qatar on Monday in their first direct talks for more than a year, diplomatic and rebel sources said on Saturday.
Representatives from JEM and the Khartoum government will hold ”preliminary talks” on a Darfur conference, an African diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
”It is not negotiations, but consultation to open the way to formal negotiations,” JEM official Tahir el-Feki said.
The talks will take place less than a week after Sudanese forces moved into the flashpoint town of Muhajaria in Darfur, taking it from JEM rebels who had seized it last month in a bid to oust militiamen loyal to the government.
The fighting killed at least 30 civilians and displaced more than 30 000 people.
Feki said the timing of the talks was not related to the fighting.
”It has nothing to do with the recent fighting,” he said, adding that the talks had been planned for a month.
The UN says about 300 000 people have been killed in Darfur since ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003, complaining of discrimination.
Sudan says 10 000 people have died, and denies charges that its soldiers and allied Janjaweed militiamen have committed war crimes and genocide in Darfur. — Sapa-AFP