The good news:
Sudan’s government and the country’s main rebel leader signed a comprehensive peace agreement to end Africa’s longest-running conflict yesterday, concluding an eight-year process to stop a civil war that has cost more than 2 million lives since 1983.
In a lavish ceremony in neighbouring Kenya – where the talks were based – Sudanese vice-president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and John Garang, chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, signed the peace agreement.
The north-south war has pitted Sudan’s Islamic-dominated government against rebels seeking greater autonomy and a greater share of the country’s wealth for the largely animist south. The conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.
The bad news:
Rebels in western Sudan have accused the government of redeploying soldiers not needed after the peace deal with the south to the civil war in Darfur. Justice and Equality Movement rebel leader Colonel Omar Adam told the BBC “the government is preparing for war”.
He said he had seen both heavy and light weaponry arriving.
The UN has warned that intense violence could break out if swift action is not taken over the security situation in Darfur.
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