Sudan's government and the main southern rebel group yesterday adjourned peace talks in Kenya without agreeing on a cease-fire deal crucial to ending Africa's longest war, mediators said. "The talks have adjourned, but consultations with both sides will continue," Lazaro Sumbeiywo, the Kenyan retired army general in charge of mediating the peace talks, told AFP. An official in the mediation, who did not want to be named, said the ceasefire negotiations adjourned "without a deal, but mediators will continue shuttling between the Sudan's government and Sudan People's Liberation Army for consultations and to fix the date of resumption."
The cease-fire talks, which opened on June 21, are mediated by East Africa's regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Rebel spokesman Samson Kwaje told AFP that the two sides had agreed on "about 70 percent" of the whole cease-fire deal, but were stalled on funding of the two armies and positioning of the integrated forces after a final peace deal is signed. "What is remaining is around 30 percent, and it is because we disagreed on details of funding the two armies, the SPLA and government's, and whether or not the joint forces will be in eastern Sudan," which lies in the north, Kwaje told AFP. An earlier agreement on security arrangements in September 2003 broadly outlined how Khartoum would withdraw regular soldiers from southern Sudan and how troops from both sides would be integrated into a new army. |