KHARTOUM, 15 November 2007 — Eight rebel Darfur factions yesterday decided to group together and said they were willing to resume mediation with the United Nations and African Union (AU) over peace talks with Khartoum.
“We have decided to form a united front,” Jar Al-Nabi Abdel Karim, the head of one of the factions, told AFP by telephone after weeks of talks in Juba, the capital of semi-autonomous southern Sudan.
Abdel Karim said teams were now drafting the basis of coordination between six factions from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and two groups lead by Khamis Abdallah and Adam Bakhit.
Nevertheless the two main Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the SLA Unity faction, are not party to the agreement, he said.
“We have set up a committee tasked with contacting the two movements and if possible, to initiate coordination with them,” said Abdel Karim.
Attempts would also be made to reach out to the historic SLM leader, Abdel Wahid Nur, who lives in exile in Paris, he added.
All these factions and movements boycotted UN and AU peace negotiations in Libya on Oct. 27 that quickly broke down.
Abdel Karim said the new united front was willing to meet the UN special envoy to Sudan, Jan Eliasson, and his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, who were due in Khartoum on Wednesday, to relaunch the quest for peace in Darfur.
Four years of conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, combined with the effects of famine and disease, have killed at least 200,000 people and displaced two million. The Sudanese government in Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died.
