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/ 13 March 2008

Headache delayed Sudan-Chad pact

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was due to attend a rescheduled peace accord signing with Chad’s President Idriss DĂ©by Itno on Thursday after failing to show up on Wednesday and telling mediators he had a headache. The mediators hope the non-aggression pact will end years of hostility between Sudan and Chad.

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/ 26 February 2008

Dark anniversary for Darfur

The deadly conflict in Darfur entered its sixth year on Tuesday with no solution in sight, as Khartoum continued to resist the full deployment of a peacekeeping force amid a fresh wave of bombings. The anniversary coincides with visits to the country by Washington’s special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, and China’s point man for Darfur, Liu Giujin, for top-level talks.

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/ 24 February 2008

ICC vows to bring Darfur masterminds to justice

Nine months after the first arrest warrants were issued for those suspected of being behind atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, the chief international prosecutor believes he has the masterminds in his sights. International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has vowed to target the most senior people behind the violence.

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/ 9 February 2008

Top UN official warns of risk of Sudan-Chad war

A senior United Nations official on Friday warned that a reported proxy war between Sudan and Chad through rebel groups on each side of their border threatened to destabilise the region and could lead to a wider conflict. Jean-Marie Guehenno made the remarks to the Security Council as Sudan troops attacked communities in western Darfur.

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/ 28 January 2008

Sudan in fresh bid to chair AU

Sudan will seek to head the African Union during the continental body’s upcoming summit at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, a Sudanese official said. Sudan’s two previous bids for the AU’s rotating presidency have been unsuccessful due to reservations over Khartoum’s rights record in the western region of Darfur.

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/ 19 January 2008

Fresh fighting hampers Darfur peace process

The United Nations envoy to Sudan, Jan Eliasson, said on Friday that fresh fighting in the war-torn region of Darfur has set back hopes for a speedy resumption of peace talks. ”The current atmosphere is not the best,” Eliasson told reporters in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where he met Sudan’s First Vice-President, Salva Kiir.

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/ 7 January 2008

Conflict feared as Sudan-Chad tensions escalate

The threat of open conflict between Sudan and neighbouring Chad is rising, with each side accusing the other of seeking to destabilise their already tense common border. Sudan said on Sunday it was ready for any Chadian attack the day after Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno said his forces would pursue rebels into Sudan’s region of Darfur.

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/ 27 November 2007

China ‘deeply concerned’ over threats in Darfur

China on Tuesday voiced deep concern about the safety of its peacekeepers in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region after rebel groups boycotting the peace process declared they were not immune from attack. ”Up to now there has been no incident, but we are deeply concerned about the matter,” the Chinese ambassador to Khartoum, Li Cheng Wen, said.

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/ 25 October 2007

Darfur rebels kidnap foreign oil workers

A Darfur rebel group has attacked a Sudanese oilfield and kidnapped a Canadian and an Iraqi worker, a leader of the group said on Thursday, vowing further attacks. ”We attacked Defra oilfield and kidnapped two foreign workers, one is Canadian and another is Iraqi,” said Abdelaziz el-Nur Ashr, field commander for the Justice and Equality Movement.

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/ 12 October 2007

Sudan party slams ex-rebels’ pull-out from govt

Sudan’s National Congress Party (NCP) of President Omar al-Bashir on Friday criticised the decision by former southern rebels to withdraw from the Khartoum government. "The heart of the problem is that a group within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement wants to end our partnership," the northern NCP’s number two, Nafie Ali Nafie, said.

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/ 11 October 2007

Southerners suspend work in Khartoum government

The main party in southern Sudan has suspended its participation in the national government until its northern partners reignite a stalled peace process, the secretary general of the party said on Thursday. Pagan Amum of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said: ”The SPLM has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers.”

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/ 10 October 2007

Darfur rebel group abandons ceasefire

Fighting has erupted between the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace accord and Sudanese troops, the United Nations said on Wednesday after the rebels accused Khartoum of attacking a town the rebels control. The United Nations said that exchanges of fire took place on between the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi and the Sudanese army.

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/ 9 October 2007

AU confirms bombing raid on Darfur town

Sudan’s army bombed Muhajiriya, the main Darfur town held by the only rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal with Khartoum, injuring at least two dozen people, the African Union force commander said on Tuesday. Martin Luther Agwai said it was not yet clear why the fighting began on Monday.

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/ 28 September 2007

Ugandan troops accused of plundering trees in Sudan

Ugandan troops looted truckloads of valuable trees from south Sudan when they were pursuing Lord’s Resistance Army rebels who were hiding in the region, a research group said on Friday. The Swiss-based Small Arms Survey said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces cut teak trees in southern Sudan’s Equatoria region during Operation Iron Fist.

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/ 17 September 2007

UN: Violence is increasing in Darfur camps

Violence is increasing in camps for displaced people in Darfur, where nearly a quarter million people have been displaced so far this year, a United Nations report said on Monday. The United Nations said rising violence in the overcrowded camps of the remote region of western Sudan was making it harder to carry out humanitarian aid work.

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/ 10 September 2007

Sudan bombs north Darfur town

Sudanese government aircraft bombed a rebel-held town in Darfur on Monday, insurgent groups said, hours after the government said it was investigating a rebel raid on one of its bases last month. Reports of the attack came seven weeks before rebel groups and the Khartoum government are set to meet for peace talks.