ROME, 14 May 2005 — The two main rebel groups fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region announced yesterday they were willing to resume stalled peace talks, dropping their previous conditions for new negotiations.
“We make a solemn commitment to resume as soon as possible the Abuja negotiations under the auspices of the African Union without preconditions,” the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement said in a statement.
The SLA and JEM made their announcement after holding “frank consultations” with the 53-nation African Union at Rome’s Community of Sant’Egidio, a Roman Catholic organization that has brokered a number of African peace treaties.
No date was set for new talks, but the rebel groups said they hoped the various parties would get together “in the coming days” at Sant’Egidio to try to strengthen the peace process.
The two rebel groups took up arms in early 2003 accusing the Sudanese government of neglect and discrimination against non-Arabs in Sudan’s vast western region. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million driven from their homes into teeming refugee camps inside Sudan and across the border in Chad.
