NAIVASHA, Kenya, 22 September 2003 — Sudan’s government and main rebel group have agreed to extend a cease-fire pact when it expires at the end of the month, Kenya’s foreign minister said yesterday.
“One of the things we have agreed as a first measure will be an extension of the cessation of hostilities agreement. This will be extended for another two months and an agreement to that effect will be signed,” Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told reporters.
Kenya has been hosting talks between Sudan’s first vice president and the leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which are aimed at ending two decades of war in Africa’s largest country.
The civil war broke out in 1983 and pits the government in the north against rebels fighting for more autonomy in the mainly animist and Christian south.
When asked about the progress of the talks between Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and SPLA chief John Garang, Musyoka said he was “very encouraged”.
“The two brothers will continue to talk and they will work very, very hard. The amount of international goodwill is simply overwhelming and everybody in Sudan is looking forward to the successful outcome of these consultations,” Musyoka said. Talks between the two men and their aides have lasted more than two weeks at Lake Naivasha, some 90 km from Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Despite agreeing last year to give southerners the right to a referendum on secession after a six-year transitional period, the two parties are still struggling to hammer out an agreement on several key issues including how to manage security during the interim period.
The two sides first signed a temporary truce in October last year. It has been renewed several times as initial timescales for a comprehensive peace deal have proved over-ambitious.
Meanwhile, a senior official said in remarks published here yesterday the government planned to develop rebel-hit western Sudan as well as provide thousands of tons of domestic and international emergency food aid.
The remarks attributed to Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid appeared designed to ease poverty and neglect, fuelling a months-long rebellion against the Sudanese government.
The government intends to deliver 15,000 tons of emergency food aid for the relief of 110,000 people over the coming three months, Hamid was quoted as saying in the independent Al-Ayam daily.
He said 4,000 tons would be provided by the government from domestic stocks, 5,000 tons by the European Union and 6,000 by the United Nations and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The second part of the program provides for rehabilitation of services in the areas of water, health care, sanitation, shelter and education, Hamid said.
During the same period, any land mines would be removed from the area and weapons would be collected from civilians, in line with a six-week cease-fire signed in Abeche, Chad.
The cease-fire took effect on Sept. 6, but the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) has accused government forces of violating it several times. Under the program, the government seeks to convene a general conference to develop the region, taking into consideration the state’s development policy and the UN Special Initiative for Greater Darfur, he added.
