Sudan to start peace talks with border state rebels
KHARTOUM | Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:13pm EDT
(Reuters) - Sudan will start peace talks on Tuesday with insurgents fighting
government troops in two states bordering South Sudan in a conflict which
has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, according to state media on
Sunday.
The talks with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North)
will commence under the auspices of the African Union in Ethiopia on
Tuesday, said Ibrahim Ghandour, head of Sudan's delegation, state news
agency SUNA reported.
Sudan previously refused to meet the SPLM-North and accused South Sudan of
backing the rebels, charges denied by Juba.
Khartoum changed its stance after signing a deal with South Sudan last month
to defuse tensions between the neighbors and resume cross-border oil flows.
The countries came close to war a year ago in a conflict over oil fees and
disputed territory.
The SPLM-North has already said it was ready to talk to Sudan. Its fighters
in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states sided with South Sudan during decades
of civil war with Khartoum, which ended with a peace agreement in 2005.
They were left on the Sudanese side of the border after southern secession
in July 2011.
Fighting in the two border states has forced hundreds of thousands of people
to flee their homes. The United Nations has been denied access to deliver
aid via Sudan to rebel-held territories in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Sudan's north-south war was one of Africa's longest and deadliest conflicts,
killing some 2 million people, devastating much of South Sudan and sucking
in many of its neighbors.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jason Webb)
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Received on Sun Apr 21 2013 - 13:55:45 EDT
