KHARTOUM, 18 October 2005 — Field commanders from Darfur’s main rebel group, dogged by splits that are hampering peace efforts, said yesterday they have called a unity meeting to resolve differences within the ranks. Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim, head of the Sudan Liberation Army’s (SLA) conference organizing committee, said all SLA leaders had been invited to the Oct. 25 conference. But some on the ground were doubtful all the leadership would attend.

“All our members and leaders from all over the world have been invited for the conference,” he told Reuters from Darfur. Ibrahim declined to say where the conference would be held for security reasons, but sources said it was likely to be in South Darfur state.

“One of the most important objectives of the gathering is to try to settle differences in the movement,” Ibrahim also told AFP. The SLA expects an estimated 800 delegates from the movement to attend the gathering scheduled to begin Oct. 25. The group has also invited 200 guests, including observers from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and the African Union as well as Sudanese political leaders and intellectuals.

An influential think tank warned earlier this month that divisions among the Darfur rebels threatened to derail ongoing efforts by the AU to resolve more that 30 months of conflict in the western region. “Unless reversed, the slow implosion of the rebel movements threatens to extend the tragic situation in Darfur indefinitely,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group warned.

The SLM is split into two factions, one led by Secretary-General Mani Arko Minawi and the other by Chairman Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur. Each insists it controls the majority of the SLM’s armed militants. Nur’s faction is taking part in the current round of talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja which Minawi’s group is boycotting. His group said it would not recognize the outcome of the talks. An estimated 180,000 to 300,000 people have died in Darfur since the civil conflict erupted in February 2003, with around two million civilians left homeless.