Y'know, when you've got rebels in the north, and rebels in the south, and rebels in the west, maybe you're doing something wrong...
Sudan's government signed a peace deal on Thursday with northern rebels a day before it was due to receive a southern rebel delegation in the capital Khartoum for the first time in two decades of civil war. The agreement between the government and the northern Democratic Unionist party came as the government and southern rebels prepared to resume high-level peace talks in Kenya that have so far excluded the northerners. Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha signed the peace accord in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah with northern opposition leader Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, according to Sudan's ambassador in the Saudi capital. Mirghani, who lives in exile in Cairo and Asmara, had recently warned that his party's exclusion from the government's peace talks with the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in Kenya augured badly for peace prospects.
| Wants a piece of the action, does he? |
SPLA leader John Garang said on Wednesday that he wants to share power not only with President Omar al-Beshir but with other political leaders once the ongoing peace process brings an end to the 20-year civil war. He had met in Cairo in May with Mirghani and Sadeq al-Mahdi, head of the Umma Party, the other main northern opposition party. The fresh round of talks with the southern rebels and the rebel visit to Khartoum Friday highlight the dramatic progress both sides have made toward ending the war in the two years since the United States threw its weight behind the negotiations. |