Sudan, Southern Rebels Set Date to Finalize Peace Agreement

The Sudanese government and the country’s main southern rebel group will sign a peace agreement Jan. 10 in Kenya to end more than 20 years of civil war, a senior government official said Saturday.

The government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army had pledged to finalize an agreement to end the longest-running war in Africa by Dec. 31, making a commitment last month before the U.N. Security Council when it held a rare meeting in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, to spur the peace talks.

The north-south war has pitted Sudan’s Muslim-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 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

Gutbi Mahdi, political advisor to President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, told the official Sudan Media Center that the government and SPLA negotiators had decided to continue talks over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to resolve outstanding differences before signing the agreement.

“The final signing for peace will be on Jan. 10 in the presidential palace in Nairobi,” Mahdi told the media center, adding that it would be a cause for public celebration in north and south Sudan alike.

U.N. and U.S. officials are hoping that a solution to the civil war -- which will include a new constitution and power-sharing government -- will spur an end to the conflict between government-backed forces and rebels in the western Darfur region.

When the latest north-south negotiations began this month, both sides had agreed on power- and wealth-sharing and how to integrate their armed forces. But there were outstanding issues, including the size of the armies of the north and the south and funding for the southern armed forces during the 6 1/2 -year period until a referendum on autonomy for that region is held.

The top U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, told reporters at the United Nations on Dec. 14 that if a north-south agreement were reached and signed in early January, he envisioned Security Council adoption of a resolution in the third week of January authorizing a wide-ranging U.N. peacekeeping and peace-building mission, hopefully with 9,000 to 10,000 troops.

The United Nations already has pledges for the troops, including from Southeast Asian nations Pronk wouldn’t identify. But he said it would take six months to deploy the U.N. force in southern Sudan, where it probably would remain through the referendum.

The U.N. force will not be deployed in Darfur, where the African Union has sent about 900 troops of a force expected to exceed 3,000.