Sudanese parties sign peace accord
From Oghogho Obayuwana, Abuja
AT last, parties to the Sudanese peace talks holding in Abuja have signed the security protocol, an accord that is expected to put an end to hostilities in the troubled western region of Darfur.
The agreement, endorsed last night, is dual in nature in that it incorporates and leverages an earlier signed humanitarian protocol.
On hand yesterday evening to legitimise the new agreement was African Union (AU) chairman, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who expressed the hope that peace would speedily return to war-torn western Sudan after weeks of talks.
In the security deal agreed on yesterday, the Sudanese government - under international pressure - accepted a ban on military flights over Darfur and especially rebel-held territories.
In addition, a separate agreement seeks to ease delivery of humanitarian aid to Darfur, where 70,000 have died since the conflict began.
The breakthrough in the AU-brokered Abuja peace talks is coming as aid agencies say the deteriorating security is hampering relief efforts.
"It is really a historical moment," Sudanese government spokesman, Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim, was quoted by Associated Press as saying after both sides signed the protocols.
"We hope this will be the first stage toward the improvement of the situation on the ground," Ahmed Hussein Adam from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) group added.
But despite yesterday's seeming breakthrough, there still exist some no-go areas.
Only last week, the United Nations (UN) warned of anarchy in Darfur, where some 1.6 million people have fled their homes in the 21-month war.
Reports further say that clashes between government and rebels mean large pockets of Darfur are now "no-go areas", preventing the distribution of food to nearly 200,000 refugees, the World Food Programme says.
But Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, told Foreign Affairs correspondents that the situation on the ground was being overplayed by the international community.
"We have more than 270,000 who have gone back to their houses.
"We think that this is a good sign and indicator for the improvement of the situation in Darfur," he was quoted saying last week.
But despite the landmark accord, the United States (U.S.) has added its voice of disapproval of the Khartoum government's recent forced relocation operation.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was worried that a 3,000-strong AU force to be deployed in Sudan by the end of this month was not being moved in fast enough.
UN officials arrived in Sudan on Monday to probe genocide allegations, a term used by Powell in September to describe the killings in Darfur.
Pro-government Janjaweed militias are accused of driving the region's black Africans from their villages, since two rebel groups began an uprising in February last year.
The Security Council is due to meet in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, November 17-18 to discuss Darfur.
It was not, however, clear yesterday whether hostilities would cease in its entirety in the area following the threat by the emergent rebel group, the Movement for National Reconstruction and Development (NMRD) to make Darfur unsafe for the African Mission force in Darfur (AMIS) if they were continuously denied participation in the Abuja peace meeting.`
