Sudan peace deal expected

Government and southern rebel officials are expected to sign a permanent ceasefire deal today and approve a detailed plan on how to end the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.

The deals would resolve procedural issues that prevented the sides from concluding a comprehensive peace deal, said Peter Ole Nkuraiya, permanent secretary in the Kenyan ministry for East African and regional co-operation.

Negotiators, however, were continuing over key aspects of the deals, Nkuraiya said.

“We are still working on the final details. There is a lot of progress that has been made – very, very positive,” Nkuraiya said. “But negotiations go up to the last minute. You can say that between 98 and 99% of the issues have been resolved.”

The Sudanese government and the southern rebels will sign a final peace deal on January 9 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, says Yasir Arman, spokesman of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

“The new year will be a year of peace and democracy in Sudan,” Arman said. “It will be the end of the longest war in Africa.”

Sudanese government and rebel officials are trying to overcome differences over funding for a separate army that rebels plan to maintain in southern Sudan as a security guarantee during the six-year transition, an official familiar with the talks said.

The rebels wants the government to fund the force, but Sudanese officials refuse because the military unit will not be part of the new national army.

The two sides are also negotiating details of international guarantees they need during the transition, the official said.

The north-south war has pitted Sudan’s Islamic-dominated government against rebels seeking greater autonomy and a greater share of the country’s wealth for the Christian and animist south.

The conflict is blamed for more than two million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

On May 26, the adversaries signed three protocols on power-sharing and on how to run three disputed areas in central Sudan – all major stumbling blocks preventing them from reaching a final deal earlier.

UN and US officials are hoping that a solution to the civil war – which will include a new constitution and power-sharing government for Sudan – will spur an end to the separate conflict between government-backed forces and rebels in the western Darfur region.

Disease and hunger have killed 70,000 in Darfur since March, the World Health Organisation says.

Nearly two million are believed to have fled their homes since the start of the crisis.