The decades-long conflict in Sudan's Darfur region has its roots in constant neglect and tensions between sedentary farming communities and nomads. These have been compounded by a local drought and desertification, an expanding population and the manipulation of ethnic rivalry.
Ironically, the main grievances - most notably competition for land and resources - are common to all of Darfur's seven million inhabitants but have been exploited in a "divide and rule" tactic that pits one tribal group against another, observers say. The result has seen an escalation of fighting since early 2003, leaving thousands of Sudanese dead, and hundreds of thousands displaced. 
Occurring within a vast region of northwestern Sudan, the conflict belies the popular myth that the country is divided along ethnic lines, between an Arab Muslim north and a Christian or animist, black south. In Darfur, where the vast majority of people are Muslims and Arabic-speaking, the distinction between 'Arab' and 'African' is more cultural than racial.
Regional analysts say this raises fundamental questions about the country's ongoing bilateral peace process, by exposing the imbalance of negotiations that include only one of Sudan's rebel groups - the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) - and only three of its so-called "marginalised areas" - the Nuba mountains, Abyei and Southern Blue Nile. 
"You can't implement a peace agreement in the midst of civil war," warned a western diplomat. 

Use of militias 

Armed raids on rich agricultural areas of Darfur have historically been part of the way of life for the region's Arab nomadic herders. 
The minority Arabs engaged in low level skirmishes with sedentary farmers until the 1970s. But since the mid-1980s, following a prolonged drought in 1983, skirmishes with subsistence farmers developed into larger-scale battles as the nomads were pushed further south. 
At the same time, successive northern governments began using Arab militias to crush rising dissent in the region, including an SPLA-led rebellion in 1991-1992. Analysts say this gave the Arab nomads leverage with the government, which rewarded them with local administrative positions, financial gains and arms, at the expense of the "African" tribes.
"Government policies were instrumental in transforming 'traditional' tribal conflict over access to receding grazing land and water into a new type of conflict driven by a broader ethnic agenda," says the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank. 
The fiercely independent Fur - who had ruled the independent sultanate of Darfur (which means homeland of the Fur) until 1916 - along with the Zaghawa, Massalit and other tribes rebelled.
The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels emerged in February 2003 as a response to years of government-sanctioned attacks, unpopular central governance, lack of development in the region, and an ever more precarious existence, say analysts. 
Calling for a "united, democratic Sudan", greater political autonomy and a greater share of resources, the rebels asked the people of Darfur "of Arab background" to join with non-Arabised indigenous forces in the struggle against Khartoum.

Security-driven response 

The government, which views the insurgency as a security threat, has called on Darfur's tribes to "defend" their homes and property, and support the government's attempt to fight the rebels, the national Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Dr Sulaf El Din, told IRIN. "Some are coming forward and some are not. This does not mean that the government is biased against one group."
As a result, a militia known as the Janjaweed was formed, comprising Sudanese and Chadian horse and camel-riding Arab nomads, opportunists and "criminals", regional analysts said. The Janjaweed are held responsible for much of the devastation in Darfur and have allegedly been given support by the government. Khartoum strongly denies the accusations. 
"First the soldiers arrived and started shooting and burning people's homes, then the Janjaweed came to kill and loot everything," said a displaced man outside Nyala in southern Darfur.
A tribal leader in western Darfur told IRIN the army used to attack villages just before the militias to lay the groundwork and confiscate people's weapons. "But now the militias have been given access to good arms, they are better than the army's," he claims.
"The Janjaweed are fighting for land and they have found that they can fight this with the government's resources, the whole country's resources. It's a chance they never dreamed of," a Darfur member of parliament told IRIN.
Hundreds of villages and neighbouring farmland have been completely destroyed. Food prices in western Darfur have increased dramatically from 1,800 Sudanese dinars to 7,000 for a bag of millet, while commercial traffic has all but stopped. Livestock have decreased in value as locals desperately try to sell off their cattle before they are looted. 

Political solution to a political problem 

The government says it is trying to contain the violence and insists that the conflict is "local", resulting from arms flowing into the region from Chad and Libya. 
"There is no rebellion in Darfur, just a local conflict among specific tribes," Information Minister Dr Al Zhawi Ibrahim Malik told IRIN. "The government has not armed the militias."
He attributed the reports on militia atrocities to propaganda and exaggeration. "Those with their own agendas are trying to give a very sad view of what is happening," he said. "The propaganda in the west is trying to exaggerate what is taking place in Darfur."
Observers note that the government has taken some positive steps to stem the crisis in recent weeks. 
Extra resources are being set aside for Darfur, in an apparent recognition of problems associated with the lack of development. Peace conferences are being organised, and some of the Janjaweed have been recruited into the Popular Defence Forces (government paramilitary units) and border intelligence units in an attempt to give them a new role.
But regional analysts say the essentially political nature of the conflict is not being addressed sufficiently. A western diplomat described the security-driven response to date as being "devoid of political or social dimensions".
Another diplomat said there were "no signs of the government ceding power to Darfur". "Khartoum perceives that it has already made enough concessions to the southern SPLA, so it is determined not to lose more to its northern constituency," he commented.
Only a handful of aid agencies have been allowed to operate in the region. Humanitarian sources said a "lack of transparency" regarding security information had led to travel permits being withheld for weeks. This had prevented badly-needed aid from reaching both rebel-held and government areas. 

Cease fire hopes 

Meanwhile, neighbouring Chad has been brokering talks aimed at reaching a peaceful settlement to the conflict. 
But a nominal ceasefire agreement with the SLA which lasted for three months - from September to December - was accompanied by a massive escalation in militia attacks. 
Darfur MPs told IRIN the peace process - which broke down in December amid mutual recriminations - was "a waste of time". Darfur's second rebel group, the Islamist Justice and Equality Movement - a breakaway group from the SLA - had been excluded from talks, they said, while the ceasefire was not even respected.
Both rebel groups, which are unhappy with Chad's mediation, have said the inclusion of international monitors is a precondition to further negotiations. But Khartoum has so far refused to allow the international community to observe the talks, resulting in a deadlock.
"Chad alone cannot broker peace - it is also affected by this war. Tribes from Chad are fighting in Sudan and they are affected politically so it cannot act independently," one Darfur MP said. 
Chadian President Idris Deby is himself a Zaghawa, but remains friendly with Khartoum. 
"I formally reject these allegations that Chad might be involved in the destabilisation of Sudan," he told Chadian radio. "We have the best possible relations between our states, and between President Omar al-Bashir and myself."
According to the ICG, Deby dedicated about 2,000 troops to take part in joint operations against the SLA. He also reportedly deported about 35 Darfur intellectuals who arrived in Chad in October to advise the politically inexperienced SLA during ceasefire negotiations.

The way for ward 

In the absence of a ceasefire, opinions are varied about the way out of this conflict. Observers say immediate efforts must be made to rein in the attackers. "The government must acknowledge the failure of its past policies, protect its civilians, stabilise the region, and then work towards an equitable political solution with all of Darfur's tribes," one observer said.
The UN has called for an internationally monitored "humanitarian ceasefire" that would automatically lead to more international aid, a larger international presence on the ground,  less insecurity, and space for further talks. 
A growing number of voices including the SLA say Darfur should be discussed as part of the wider Sudanese peace process. "There has to be a peace settlement in Darfur before signing a comprehensive agreement [with the SPLA]," said one Darfur MP. "It has to be treated equally with the rest of the marginalised areas. If they are given their autonomy, then it also has to be done to Darfur."
But others say this would hold up the Kenya talks with the SPLA unnecessarily, and be viewed as a "reward" for armed insurrection.
In the long-term, observers say, the peace process - brokered by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - will probably help to address Darfur's political grievances, by automatically leading to federalism, more development, wider participation in the political arena and access to resources. 
The blueprints for the disputed areas of the Nuba mountains, Abyei and southern Blue Nile will likely serve to deal with the Darfur situation. SPLA leader John Garang has also warned that as a governing side during the interim period, it will not be a party to repression in the region. 
But while the debate continues, people continue to die. 
Even now, with 25,000 people forced to flee in December alone into neighbouring Chad, Darfur is receiving relatively little international attention.
One donor described reaction to the conflict as a "collectively mishandled crisis".
A combination of a lack of accurate information on the conflict, exacerbated by few aid agencies being able to work on the ground and little media coverage have meant that the conflict has not received the attention it deserves, he said.
"Humanitarians' reluctance to threaten the wider peace process, and an emphasis on post-conflict planning and development, have also hindered a quick response," he added. "We could have done better, if we had kept it on the agenda."

Eritrea has rejected accusations that it is destabilising the Horn region as empty claims, saying history shows who the aggressor is. 
On Monday, the leaders of Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen - who held a two-day summit in Addis Ababa - accused the small Red Sea state of fuelling regional instability. 
"When we talk about dialogue in the sub-region we mean Eritrea should act positively with the neighbours to achieve a final good neighbourly relationship between the states," Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told a press conference. "It is not a secret that Eritrea is exerting huge efforts to create instability in Sudan." 
And Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Eritrea "has problems with many of its neighbours", although he denied that the three countries were conspiring against Asmara. 
But Yemane Gebremeskel, who heads the office of Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki, said history showed that Ethiopia was the destabilising factor in the region. 
"The facts tell the story," he told IRIN on Tuesday. "It is Ethiopia which annexed Eritrea, it is Ethiopia which does not accept international law. It is not Eritrea which started the war. History is clear - you cannot accuse the victim." 
Tension has been steadily mounting between the two sides over Ethiopia's refusal to accept an international ruling on where their frontier should run following a bloody two-year border war from 1998-2000. 
Yemane also dismissed Sudan's claims, accusing Khartoum of a "public policy of exporting fundamentalism". He rejected Bashir's specific accusations that Eritrea was helping rebels in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan, saying these were a "lame excuse to make hostile comments". "We are not involved," he told IRIN. 
The three leaders said their alliance was open to all Horn countries, particularly Eritrea. 
"Eritrea is not such a colossus of a security threat to require the conspiracy of all three countries to manage it," Meles said. "This forum is open to anyone who wants to join it, including and most particularly Eritrea." 
But Yemane said this was a "gimmick". "We do not need that alliance," he said. "We already have regional groupings such as IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development]."

Just about everyone in Yei, a sprawling rural town in southwestern Sudan, is talking about prospects for peace these days. You can scarcely walk through the town's bombed-out streets without overhearing vendors, for example, discussing their hopes for an agreement at ongoing peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, between representatives of Sudan's government and rebels.
"We are really so happy about this peace deal," says Johnson Okut, who sells grilled cassava at a roadside stall. "If there's a final agreement I will be able to go back to my homeland in Bahr al Ghazal for the first time in 20 years. I'm ready to go; I'm just waiting for them to finish this thing."
If all goes to plan Okut and the more than 4.5 million other Sudanese displaced by Africa's longest running civil war (including 570,000 refugees) could be about to get the peace and stability which some of them have been dreaming about for nearly 50 years. The war between Sudan's military regime and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has cost an estimated two million lives and plunged the bulk of the country's 38 million inhabitants below the poverty line.
If a hoped-for deal between president Umar al-Bashir and SPLA leader Dr John Garang is concluded, Sudan stands its best chance of becoming a stable nation since independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956. The picture is fragile - not least because of insecurity in western Sudan's Darfur province, currently the biggest threat to the vision of a peaceful Sudan. Nevertheless, for the first time in 20 years, Sudanese are talking about lasting peace as something possible.

Timid Hope 

Despite the general optimism, the mood in south Sudan is not euphoric. It is much more sober - the mood of a people who are tired of war yet uncertain about peace and, even if they get that, faced with the tall order of rebuilding a devastated country.
Natalino Losuba Mana, a southerner who runs the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) operation in Yei county, says the Sudanese will be waiting to see concrete results from the peace deal. "No one is celebrating yet," he says. "We'll wait to see these promises of peace fulfilled rather than living on hope. We still fear they will make a very good agreement that will never get beyond the paper."
If the deal does make it beyond the paper, it will in principle release some US$200 million from the United States for reconstruction. Other donors are also likely to contribute. But it is not yet clear how the money is to be spent, nor is it clear how much it will cost to rehabilitate the south - which, neglected under colonial rule and at war for most of the time since, has suffered underdevelopment for over 100 years.
According to Dr George Leju Lugor, senior development officer for the non-governmental Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the south, "even in the event of peace, the people here are visibly traumatised by the war. And after all the signing and celebrating the new deal, now for the hard part: the challenge of starting development. We have somehow to rebuild ordinary life".
Perhaps the most daunting aspect of that challenge is that few people have an ordinary life left to go back to.
"I fear our next war will be against redundancy," says Lugor, "the hard part is finding things that can give the southern Sudanese a living. We are talking about hundreds or thousands of us who joined the struggle and have only known war. They don't know what else to do."
In Yei, a town with a population swollen by the displaced to around 70,000 people, that redundancy is visible. Hundreds of bored-looking youths take shade under the rows of mango and palm nut trees. What makes it all the more frustrating, say stakeholders, is that the area has such potential. Lush and well watered, Yei's fertile land could become the bread basket of Sudan if it is developed, some people say.
But reaching that stage means reversing the near total devastation of the south's economy. "People in these areas have got used to living on their basic coping mechanisms, doing the bare minimum to survive," says Mac Maika, NPA coordinator for Yei and Juba counties. "That's the trauma of war: there is no point in producing an excess for trade because tomorrow you might be fleeing again".

Developing the land 

The NPA - ever keen to distance itself from what World Food Programme (WPF) boss James Morris calls the "quick fix, band aid mentality" - has already invested a lot in improving food production skills with long-term agricultural training programmes. Ladis-Laus Ongaro, an agriculturalist working on a training project with NPA for farmers in Yei, says the biggest challenge is finding a market for farmers' goods.
"There are a number of farmers producing a surplus in this part of the south. They are looking for a market but can't find one because of all the insecurity and poor infrastructure", he says, "they urgently need a reliable trading structure - obviously they will only be persuaded to grow an excess if it fetches money".
Ultimately, development workers say, southern Sudan will only become self-sufficient in food production and distribution if key features of its infrastructure are repaired. Top of the list are the country's transport links.

Road, blocks to growth 

A frequently made complaint of the southern Sudanese about the neglect of their region is the state of the roads. Poorly built and un-maintained, they are regarded as one of the biggest impediments to reviving the region's economy. The road from the Ugandan border to Yei, for example, covers a stretch of barely 80 km, yet the journey takes over three hours in a sturdy Toyota land cruiser.
"This stretch of the road we call the 'disco sections' ", quips an NPA driver, as his vehicle judders along the appalling dirt track linking Yei with Uganda's West Nile district. "We call them that because they force everyone in the car to dance along with the bumps".
Yet the impact of southern Sudan's bumpy roads on its struggling economy is no joke. It cuts the area off from valuable trade with other regions and countries, as would-be freighters focus on easier, more profitable routes. This renders the few goods that do pass into south Sudan from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo extremely expensive. "Any truck drivers or cross-border traders are going to be asking themselves: Do I bother driving goods into Sudan, where I waste so much time and my vehicle gets damaged?" Maika says.
Projects for grading roads are underway, however, and international organisations operating in the county say the time it takes to travel from the Ugandan border to Yei town, for instance, has already been cut by almost half (it apparently used to take five hours) because a section of the route was recently overhauled.

Education, please 

But more than the roads, the south Sudanese complain about education. They often talk of having been deprived of the education which, they say, people in other African nations have enjoyed. They also describe a feeling of being disconnected from the wider world, partly because of the lack of education but also because of an absence of information media tailored to southern Sudanese. 
Many southern Sudanese, of all ages, are keen to return to studies as soon as things settle down. Ely Dada, a part-time casual security guard for senior SPLM figures, says he urgently wants to go back to school. "We have lost a lot in terms of education from this war. Schools closed and some of us dropped out to join the struggle - I dropped out of senior 1 in 1982. For me that is the most significant thing about this peace deal - it means that we can now start our education all over again", he says.
But Paul Mac, the SPLA commander who controls Yei and Juba counties in the extreme south of Sudan, claims that the SPLM are addressing the urgent need for more schools in southern Sudan. "In Yei county alone we now have five primary and two secondary schools governed by SPLM using the Ugandan English-speaking curriculum. Before the SPLA took the town in 1997, there were no schools - so you can see the progress slowly being made. We are just awaiting funding to build more when the deal is signed".
Much will depend on just how generous that funding turns out be. If 
substantial development money is released on the back of the peace deal, schools could for the first time be part of ordinary life in south Sudan. 

Self determination 

For many of the south Sudanese, the solution to decades of neglect is clear: they want the right to determine how their area is to be built and run, something to which the Khartoum government has agreed in principle at the peace talks.
Silvanos Yokosu, journalist for the Sudan Mirror, a newspaper in southern Sudan, feels many southerners are likely to want a separate state.
However, none of the people IRIN interviewed in Yei dismissed the idea of a united Sudan after a six-year interim period after which, under the terms of the draft peace accord being hammered out in Nairobi, the relationship between the south and the north is to be decided by referendum. 
What does the future hold? No one knows but many are guardedly hopeful. "It is always possible this war could end in a happy marriage," says Yokosu, "but that will require a big change in attitude - on both sides".
(This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

The leaders of Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen formed an anti-terror axis on Monday in the fight against extremists operating in the Horn of Africa. 
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced the pact as the three countries attempt to shed their image as a haven for Islamic militants. 
They will share information and experience in fighting terrorists in a bid to boost efforts to hunt down suspected al-Qaeda members or supporters in the Horn, the leaders said. 
Meles said security forces and intelligence services had already spent the last year working together to foil terrorists planning potential attacks. 
"Our cooperation has focused on exchange of information with regard to terrorists operating in either one of these three countries or in the region as a whole," Meles told a press conference in Addis Ababa. 
"This is progressing very well," he added. 
His comments came as the three countries signed a tripartite treaty focused on boosting economic, political and security cooperation. 
Sudanese President Omar Hasan al-Bashir and his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdallah Saleh were in the Ethiopian capital for the day-long summit. The nations agreed to set up the new pact in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in October last year. 
Among groups the three countries will target is the Somali extremist group Al Ittihad which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network. 
Al Ittihad, which operates from Somalia, was placed on the US list of terrorist groups after the September 11 attacks. It has been accused of harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists who fled Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban. 
"They are and continue to be a threat," said Meles, adding that the fight against extremists would form part of the global war on terror. 
The Sudanese president told journalists that he expected peace talks between government and rebel forces being held in Kenya to come to an end in a week. 
He said the final sticking points of distribution of political power and wealth and the status of three disputed regions would be overcome. 
Sudan and Ethiopia also accused Eritrea of "destabilising" the Horn of Africa, but said they would welcome Eritrea as a member of their alliance. 
"It is not a secret that Eritrea is creating huge efforts to create instability in Sudan," Bashir claimed at the press conference. 
Yemen and Eritrea have also faced problems over ownership of a group of islands in the Red Sea, known as the Hanish. 
Eritrea has described the alliance as an "axis of belligerence" and accused the countries of conspiring against the tiny Red Sea state. 

Over 600 Sudanese soldiers and pro-government militias have reportedly been killed by rebels in Darfur (western Sudan) during a two-day battle, JEM (Justice and Equality Movement), one of the two groups that rose up in arms against the central government of Khartoum in February 2003, has said. The rebels say they carried out a joint operation with the other warring faction, SLA-M (Sudan’s Liberation Army-Movement), ambushing between 4,500 and 5,000 soldiers and pro-government militias bound for the city of Tina, one of the strongholds of the insurgents situated on the border with Chad. The clash reportedly began on 25 December near the city of Kulbus, 120 kilometres north of Geneina, capital of the Darfur region. JEM says 621 government soldiers and 27 rebels died in the violence. On Friday military sources confirmed that soldiers engaged in repelling an attack by “bandits” had been killed and injured, but they did not give details of the casualties. The collapse of talks between the two rebel formations and the Khartoum authorities in Chad ten days ago led to fears that clashes would intensify. The remote Darfur region on the border with Chad has been the scene of forays by gangs of Islamic predators for years. The situation has deteriorated since the start of 2003, with the launch of a formal insurrection by SLA-M – subsequently joined by JEM - against Khartoum. According to the United Nations, at least 7,000 people (out of six million inhabitants in the region, representing one fifth of the population of Sudan) have been killed in this isolated region since the start of 2003, while around 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes.[

The medical relief organisation MSF (Medécins sans Frontières) has warned of a fresh outbreak of Kala-azar in Latjor State, Upper Nile, in South Sudan. In a statement released earlier today, the international organisation said that the identification of increasing numbers of cases of the deadly parasitic disease over the last week points to a “very threatening” epidemic in a population with little acquired resistance to Kala-azar. "The fact that all age groups and both sexes are affected, and that these people have not travelled in from elsewhere indicates an epidemic outbreak", says Kees Keus, MSF's health advisor for Sudan, in the communiqué. "We know from our experience in other places how devastating this can be. It is vital that we quickly discover the extent of the problem in this area." MSF says it established a clinic in the small town of Bimbim a few days ago and already has 150 patients under treatment for Kala-azar. Twenty more reportedly arrive every day. Most of the people reported that they had already lost at least one family member to the disease. There are also reports of similar patterns of disease in the towns of Kechkoun and Nassir, in the same region. Kala-Azar is transmitted by the sandfly and weakens the immune system; most victims die of common infections such as pneumonia or diarrhoea. There is no vaccine against the disease, although it can be treated with intravenous drugs and intensive feeding for a month. Severe malnutrition due to food shortages and massive population movements in the region – both the consequence of a 20-year civil war - have all served to make the local population particularly susceptible to infection. MSF is calling on international agencies to take urgent action to help locate, assess and treat people affected by the disease, which reportedly claimed an estimated 100,000 lives in southern Sudan between 1985 and 1993

The Sudanese authorities have imposed a curfew in the city of Geneina after the final round of peace talks with the rebellion active in Darfur (western Sudan, near the border with Chad) collapsed last week. The news comes from local press sources, which say residents in the main city in the State of West Darfur are banned from the streets from 21.00 to 07.00. The latest curfew follows similar measures imposed in the other two States that make up the region, North Darfur and South Darfur, a few days ago. Meanwhile, according to the British broadcaster ‘BBC’, aid workers still operating in the region are preparing for the worst. United Nations (UN) and ‘Medair’ (a Swiss non-governmental organisation) started pulling their staff out of West Darfur and the city of Geneina a few days ago due to the lack of security in large parts of the region and fears of fresh violence following the collapse of talks. Since the start of 2003, the situation in the remote western region of Sudan has gone from bad to worse. SLA-M (Sudan’s Liberation Army-Movement) – a self-defence movement created by the population in Darfur in 2001 to protect themselves from attacks by gangs of Islamic predators – formally took up arms against the Khartoum authorities, whom they accuse of failing to offer adequate protection to the local population and of backing the Arab militias that afflict the area, in February of this year. Reports of violence, fighting between the parties and air raids by the Sudanese aviation emerge from this semi-desert region daily. The UN claims that at least 7,000 people have been killed since the start of 2002, while around 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes.[LC

There is growing evidence that kala-azar, a deadly parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of the sand fly, is spreading at alarming rate in southern Sudan threatening thousands of already-vulnerable people, the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Monday. 
In a statement, it said it had noted a rapid increase in the number of people suffering from the deadly parasitic disease in Latjor, a state in the Upper Nile of region of south Sudan, suggesting a new epidemic in the region. 
The medical relief agency said that within a week of setting up a clinic in the small town of Bimbim, it had admitted 150 kala-azar patients. "Twenty more arrive every day," the statement said. "Most of the people reported that they had already lost at least one family member to the disease." 
Kees Keus, MSF's health advisor for Sudan, said this pattern pointed to a new epidemic among a population which had acquired little resistance to the disease. "The fact that all age groups and both sexes are affected, and that these people have not travelled in from elsewhere, indicates an epidemic outbreak," Keus noted. 
Similar alarming reports had also been noted in nearby Kechkoun, where 145 patients were under treatment. Unconfirmed reports also indicated that there could even be more cases in the much larger town of Nassir, which is some 12 hours walk from Bimbim, MSF said. 
"We know from our experience in other places how devastating this can be. It is vital that we quickly discover the extent of the problem in this area," Keus stressed. 
MSF has called for a "concerted response" to what it said appeared to be "a very threatening outbreak". 
"There are very few medical facilities in Latjor state and the Upper Nile region has suffered from high rates of malnutrition throughout the year," the statement noted.

The Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) organisation has launched an assessment into the extent of the minefields created by both sides during Sudan's 20-year conflict with a view to starting a comprehensive clean-up programme after the peace deal is signed.
Mach Maika, NPA coordinator for Yei and Juba counties in the extreme south of the country, told IRIN: "This is the first time NPA is involved in demining. It will be the first comprehensive demining programme for the region to be launched since the war started."
The programme is to be launched in cooperation with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and Operation Save Innocent Lives (OSIL) - a local NGO formed after the SPLM guerrillas captured Yei town in 1997.
But it is as yet unclear how such a programme will be funded.
"As it stands we don't have funding for a systematic programme of mine elimination - we do things on immediate requests," Felix Yugga of OSIL told IRIN. "This is a hard thing. It costs up to US$1000 to defuse one mine".
He described the challenges facing the demining project as "massive". 
"The contested areas will be the real challenge," he said. "Both sides laid thousands of mines in the no-man's land around Juba, Lainya, Kapoeta and Lafon. In between these places is the densest minefield in Sudan, perhaps in Africa. There could be hundreds of thousands."
The SPLA commander in charge of Yei and Juba counties, Paul Mac, told IRIN the rebel movement's administration had met do discuss the way forward on landmines. "We've procured equipment for demining," he said. "As soon as we sign a total ceasefire, we can remove the mines and we will sign a treaty to that effect."
Mach Maika said the NPA's work was made more difficult by the fact that SPLA landmines were not mapped. 
"Both sides have mined heavily but the SPLA are especially poor at keeping records," he said. "They are much better at detecting enemy mines than they are at keeping track of where their own are."
He said this was because many of the mine layers were killed before they had a chance to report back to SPLA headquarters. Another reason, he said, was that often there was simply no paper available for mapping.

The government of Sudan has accused Eritrea and the Sudanese opposition party PNC (People’s National Congress) of backing the rebels active in the region of Darfur in the far west of the country near the border with Chad, the state news agency ‘Suma’ has said. According to the head of the Sudanese secret services, General Abdel Karim Abdallah, “there is concrete proof of the support received by SLA-M (Sudan’s Liberation Army-Movement) from Asmara”, but also of the backing by some members of the Islamic Hassan al-Tourabi party. The general (at the head of the government delegation in the peace talks with SLA-M which opened in Chad on Monday and were suspended 24 hours later) explained that Eritrea wants to “trigger a war in the west and east of Sudan” to compensate for the imminent conclusion of the 20-year conflict in the south of the country. As regards PNC, the general renewed the charges made by Khartoum recently, stressing that many of the party officials are hand in glove with the rebel movement in Darfur. They include SLA-M spokesman Hassan Ibrahim, Souleiman Jamous, Abou Bakr Hamid and Ahmed Jibrili – all members of PNC who helped the rebels to formulate the proposals made during the negotiations. The PNC leadership has told the French agency ‘AFP’ that Jamous and Hamid are party officials, while the other two are not even on the party roll
 

Police closes ‘Al Jazeera’ shadow of crisis in Durfur

The Khartoum office of the television ‘Al Jazeera’ has been shut down by Sudanese security forces, the Qatar-based broadcasting network has said. ‘Al Jazeera’ says police stormed its premises in the Sudanese capital on Thursday and questioned the director, Islam Saleh, without explanation. The police then returned to the offices to confiscate technical material and computers. The central management explains that the motto of the Sudanese channel is “opinion and counter-opinion”; on the basis of this philosophy it has recently given space to both the government and the opposition, perhaps irritating Khartoum. Meanwhile, the Italian news agency ‘ANSA’ has reported that the police in the capital have also searched the headquarters of the opposition party PNC (People’s National Congress) and arrested three leaders. Though no precise explanation has been given, observers in Khartoum are not ruling out the possibility that both episodes are linked to recent tension in the western region of Darfur. In two of the States that make up this area, North Darfur and South Darfur, an evening curfew has been imposed. Moreover, in North Darfur the governor has decreed a general mobilisation to counter “possible threats” to stability and public order from the rebels of SLA (Sudan Liberation Army) following the breakdown in peace negotiations between the government and the formation in neighbouring Chad. The leader of PNC, the Islamic ideologue Hassan El Turabi, has been accused of fomenting tensions in Darfur recently. El Turabi has recently been released from months of house arrest.

The peace talks between the authorities of Khartoum and the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) underway in Naivasha (near Nairobi, Kenya), did not close today as foreseen. The negotiation is continuing, though according to sources close to the two delegations, the positions remain divergent and no date was indicated for the signing of the long-awaited peace accord to end the war started in 1983 between the Islamic regime of the north and the rebellion of the south, predominantly Animist and Christian. “Now it is the turn of the two parts – declared the mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo, special envoy of the Kenyan government – but for the moment they have not communicated to me their availability to sign anything”. The unresolved contrasts include, since the start of the negotiations in 2002, the sharing of the proceeds of the oil from the deposits of South Sudan: “We are blocked on this point: the government wants to concede us 5% of the oil proceeds, while we are asking 60%. So far the authorities have accepted to concede us up to 17%”, declared Malik Agar of the SPLA delegation. The pressures of the international community, particularly of the US, UK, Norway and Italian mediators, had pushed the Sudan government and rebels to ‘pledge’ the signing of an accord by the end of December. Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka today expressed confidence on this possibility. Aside from the oil matter, the agenda also includes discussions on the division of powers between the sides and the ‘status’ of three regions: Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Abyei). Based on various sources, also the dramatic situation in the western Darfur region, theatre to clashes between local rebels and the Sudan armed forces, has apparently entered the negotiations

Negotiations underway in Chad since Monday were suspended between the government of Khartoum and rebels of the SLA-M (Sudan Liberation Army-Movement), active in the western region of Darfur. The announcement was made yesterday by Chadian Security Minister Abdramane Moussa, cited by the ‘AFP’ agency. “We learn with disappointment – stated Moussa – that the rebels posed unacceptable conditions immediately blocking the negotiations. It is a defeat”. The government of Chad however remains open as mediator between the sides. According to the same source, the rebels also asked for a percentage of the oil proceeds and autonomy in the administration of the territory. “The SLA-M does not represent all the actors operating on the field”, added the Chadian Minister, specifying that numerous armed groups that did not sign the September 3 truce between the rebels and Sudan authorities are active in Darfur. The rebels of Darfur, inhabited by some 6-million people, accuse the government of Khartoum of not guaranteeing protection to the population, exposed to continuous attacks by Islamic nomad groups, which have so far claimed several thousand lives. According to the United Nations, at least 7-thousand people have been killed since the start of 2003 in this zone, while the displaced are estimated to be 600-thousand, 70-thousand of which have sought refuge in bordering Chad. In face of the structural lack of security, last February the SLA-M, formed in 2001, transformed into an actual rebellion against the Khartoum central government. The Darfur region is also presided by a less renowned rebel group, called the JEM (Justice and Equality Movement

Opposition leaders in Sudan have warned against a bilateral peace agreement between the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) that does not directly address the grievances of Sudan's marginalised northern populations. 
"If the peace process is a bilateral process, it will be a very temporary peace that will unravel very soon," said Sadiq al Mahdi, leader of the Umma party which enjoys wide popular support in the violence-wracked western Darfur region. 
"There is a cocktail of ethnic based political dissent, armed and supported from outside. It is going to be copied by others unless problems are universally addressed," he said. 
Islamist leader and former parliament speaker Hassan al Turabi, who heads the Popular Congress Party, concurred that a bilateral peace deal would lead to an escalation of conflict in both western and eastern Sudan. 
"Sudan has never been in a more critical position than it is today - [in terms of] breaking up into regions or joining together by free will," he told IRIN. 
Turabi acknowledged his connections with the Justice and Equality Movement rebel movement in Darfur, but denied giving it material support. 
"We support the cause, no doubt about it," he said, but added: "I didn't say I'm involved with the fighting, I said we have relations with some of the leadership." 
The Darfur region has seen an escalation of violence due to fighting between Arab militias and two main rebel groups. 
Both leaders told IRIN that reform of the Khartoum government was the only way to resolve and prevent further conflict in Sudan. 
"The most important thing is a decentralisation of power, a federal government. It's very simple," said Turabi. 
Al Mahdi added that the government
 had to acknowledge the extent of the crisis in Darfur, and the failure of its policies in the region. 
He said a national conference should be convened including all of Sudan's political parties, armed forces and civil society groups to decide on "the reforms needed" in a bid to to resolve the escalating crisis in Darfur. 
The International Crisis Group think tank has warned the international community not to focus solely on the peace process underway with the SPLM/A, at the expense of the situation in Darfur. 
"The end of one tragic civil war in Sudan should not be allowed to be a catalyst for a new one," it warned in a recent report.

The US embassy in Khartoum on Wednesday protested against the suspension of two newspapers by the Sudanese government, despite Khartoum's pledge to lift restrictions on press freedom. 
The English language 'Khartoum Monitor' has been closed since 24 November and the Arabic 'Al-Ayam' since 17 November. 
"The government's action against the newspapers - convicted of no wrongdoing and charged under dubious circumstances - inflicts grave financial losses on the newspapers and puts into question the commitment of the government to press freedom," said a US embassy statement. 
"The US embassy also wishes to reiterate that Sudan's human rights performance will be a chief factor - along with the peace process - in determining the pace of hoped-for improvement in our bilateral relations," it warned. 
However, the Sudanese government says the papers published "controversial issues that did not promote an atmosphere of peace and concord", 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' newspaper said. 
Information Minister Al Zhawi Ibrahim Malik specified that 'Al-Ayam' had published "false information" about the strife-torn Darfur region. 
"Those with their own agendas are trying to give a very sad view of what is happening in Darfur," he told IRIN. "The propaganda in the west is trying to exaggerate what is happening [there]." 
Editor of the 'Khartoum Monitor', Alfred Taban, said his newspaper had been closed seven times in the last two years for different reasons. 
The government was now prosecuting the newspaper for being "against peace", causing "racial disharmony" and "disrespecting the judiciary" as a result of four letters to the editor that it published, he told IRIN. 
He said the closures were detrimental to the Sudanese peace process. "If a peace agreement is signed without the knowledge and support of southerners, it will not hold," he stated. 

Sudanese peace talks on Monday moved closer to an agreement to end the country's 20-year civil war, although doubts remained over its viability because of ongoing fighting in the west of the country. 
A source close to the Kenya talks between the Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) told IRIN on Monday that the parties were close to reaching an agreement on wealth sharing, one of the three remaining sticking points. 
The other remaining issues in the talks facilitated by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD, include power sharing and the status of three disputed regions during a six- year transitional period. 
According to the source, both sides had agreed on the idea of a central bank with two "windows" - one overseeing an Islamic banking system for the north and the other commercial banking for the secular south. 
"It was felt that wealth sharing would be easier to deal with," the source said. "After that we can deal with the issues of power sharing and the disputed regions." 
He noted there could soon be an agreement on currency as well as the percentage of oil revenues to be shared between the north and the south. The north, he said, would continue with the dinar and south Sudan would adopt the new Sudan pound. 
In its latest report, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank has said that this peace process should take into account the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Darfur region of western Sudan, warning that one conflict risked being replaced by another.

Members of Sudan's National Assembly from Darfur have appealed for international intervention to stop killings and displacement in the region. 
"There has to be a quick international intervention to protect civilians because they are dying - nearly 50 to 100 a week," one MP told IRIN. "There is an international responsibility to intervene as quickly as possible." 
Fighting in Darfur between Arab militias and rebel groups, which escalated in March this year, has driven an estimated 670,000 people from their homes, 70,000 of whom have fled across the border into neighbouring Chad. 
The MPs emphasised the political nature of the conflict, accusing the Sudanese government of manipulating traditional ethnic tensions and pursuing a policy of "Arabisation" in Darfur, in order to maintain a support base there. 
The Sudanese government strongly denies backing the militias, known as the Janjaweed (meaning "a man with a horse and a gun"). It says it has urged all tribes in Darfur to "defend" themselves against rebels in the region. 
The MPs have demanded that the Darfur issue be discussed at peace talks underway in Kenya between the government and main rebel group, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
"There has to be a peace settlement in Darfur before signing a comprehensive agreement," said one MP. "It has to be treated equally with the rest of the marginalised areas." 
The MPs described a separate peace process - which led to a three-month ceasefire from September to December - between the government and the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) as "a waste of time". 
Chad, which has been brokering the talks, is also seen by many Darfurians as a partial mediator. "Any negotiation that is not monitored by the international community will lead to nothing," said the MP. 
"Chad alone cannot broker peace - it is also affected by this war. Tribes from Chad are fighting in Sudan and they are affected politically so it cannot act independently," said another. 
In 1990, Chadian President Idris Deby toppled his predecessor Hissein Habre in a coup. Observers note that Deby, a Zaghawa, was given support and sanctuary by the Zaghawans - one of Darfur's main ethnic groups - on the Sudanese side of the border. 
A regional analyst told IRIN that Deby, who maintains good relations with the Sudanese government and is keen to pacify his Zaghawa constituency at home, wants to contain the Darfur conflict to prevent it from spilling over into Chad. 
"Deby is very aware of what a rebellion among the Zaghawa in Sudan could do to harm him," the analyst said.

The United Nations Secretary General called for an immediate cease-fire for Darfur, the western region of Sudan, for months theatre to clashes between rebel groups and the government of Khartoum. Kofi Annan, in a document distributed in the past days by his spokesman Fred Eckard, invited the rebels of the SLA-M (Sudan Liberation Army-Movement) and Sudan government to “finalise a definitive cease-fire accord and respect it”. Annan’s request comes following the confirmation, by Khartoum authorities, of the annulment of the last round of negotiations set for yesterday in Abeche, in Chad. The talks, postponed indefinitely, were suspended to consent Khartoum to verify some reports of violations by the rebels of the temporary truce signed by the sides September 3 and renewed at the start of November. For over a month now the rebels and government have been exchanging accusations of truce violations. Annan expressed concern “over the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation” and added to have received news of numerous acts of violence against the civilians, including murder, abuse against women, looting, villages set on fire. “The insecurity is seriously jeopardising efforts to guarantee humanitarian assistance and a large part of the one-million Sudanese afflicted by the conflict in this zone cannot be reached by the workers of the international agencies”, added the spokesman. In the past days also the UN special humanitarian envoy for Sudan, Tom Vraalsen, launched a alert over the situation in Darfur, defining it “very critical”. According to the UN, 7-thousand people have been killed in the zone since the start of 2003, while an estimated 600-thousand people have been displaced, 70-thousand of which have taken refuge in bordering Chad. The Darfur region is inhabited by some 6-million Sudanese (a fifth of the population of the nation), for years exposed to violent actions of Arab nomad groups, which has so far resulted in several thousand deaths. In face of the structural lack of security, last February the SLA-M, formed in 2001, transformed into a real rebellion against the government of Khartoum. The region is also presided by another rebel group, less known, the JEM (Justice and Equality Movement

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Looting and killing has become a way of life around Junaynah, capital of Sudan's strife-torn western Darfur province. Local leaders say the attacks are being carried out by Arab militias who conduct their almost daily raids "with total impunity".
"I believe this is an elimination of the black race," one tribal leader told IRIN.
He said that since Saturday alone, an estimated 9,000 people had become displaced in attacks on 15 villages located between 20 and 40 km from the town. 
Sixteen injured men were brought to Junaynah hospital on Tuesday night, and 10 on Monday, all with gunshot wounds. The hospital receives five or six casualties with gunshot wounds daily.

Horse - backed militias 
Highly visible around the town, the horse-backed Arab nomads - Janjaweed militias or Peshmerga as they are known in western Darfur - were unusually absent on Wednesday. Local sources said an attack from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group was imminent, and there was a highly visible military presence.
Corroborating sources have accused the government of backing the militias, charges it denies. Dr Sula Feldeen, the national humanitarian aid commissioner, told IRIN all of Sudan's tribes had been asked to defend themselves against the rebels, not just Arabs. "No tribe was excluded," he said. "Some are coming forward and some are not. This does not mean that the government is biased against one group." 
In a report on Thursday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said the conflict started when the JEM and another rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), launched their first attacks on government garrisons in the region in February 2003. 
"In response to those actions, the government of Sudan has mobilised and armed Arab militias (Janjaweed), whose salary comes directly from booty captured in raids on villages, to terrorise the populace of Darfur," the ICG said. It added that the Janjaweed had stepped up activities in the past three months against the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massalit groups, who are collectively accused of supporting the rebellion. 
"The fact is the government is arming some tribes, just Arabs, they go and kill, take the belongings and rape the women," local sources in Junaynah told IRIN. "The militias have been given access to good arms, they are better than the army's."

Food concerns
Concern is mounting in western Darfur over looming food shortages, as the nomads' camels roam across local farms destroying crops. 
"Now they are fighting with bullets, but the time will come when starvation will set in," said one local leader.
Those who try to defend their farms with guns come under attack, and are sometimes arrested by the local authorities, IRIN was told. Local farmers are unable to leave their homes to harvest or to go to local villages to trade for fear of being shot.
Commercial traffic in western Darfur has all but stopped, and food prices have increased  dramatically from 1,800 Sudanese dinar to 7,000 for a bag of millet. 
Wood and charcoal prices have also gone up, while livestock are decreasing in value as people desperately try to sell their animals before they are looted. 
"The visible agenda is to fight the rebels, the invisible agenda is to get rich by looting and expand their tribal grazing areas," said a local source.

Peace efforts 
Meanwhile, local efforts to begin a peace initiative have been put on hold. A meeting in Junaynah which planned to bring together leaders of 20 tribes - Arab and black African - was reportedly cancelled last week by the local authorities. 
Elsewhere in Darfur, humanitarian sources told IRIN that NGOs and UN agencies had been prevented from travelling to needy government and rebel-held areas in the north.
UN officials and aid agencies were assured on Friday by local authorities that northern Darfur was calm and safe and that access would be granted. But five days later agencies were still awaiting travel permits to areas, including several held by the government. 
"The problem is in areas controlled by the SLM," explained deputy governor El Nour Mohammed Ibrahim. "Our experience has made us hesitant to send relief to areas under the SLM because of kidnapping and attacks on trucks." 
In its report, the ICG warned the international community not to focus solely on the regional peace process, mediated by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) between the government and Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA/M).
"The international community has thus far failed to respond appropriately to these developments, in part because the attention of the world remains focused squarely on the IGAD peace process," said the ICG's John Prendergast. 
"The government of Sudan is being feted by the international community for its transition to peacemaker through the IGAD process, while it continues to carry out a bloody campaign by proxy against the people of Darfur," he added. "The end of one tragic civil war in Sudan should not be allowed to be a catalyst for a new one". 

Nyala, Southern Darfur - For over three weeks, humanitarian access has been blocked to key areas of Darfur in western Sudan, where there are hundreds of thousands of displaced people and a steadily worsening humanitarian situation.
"Access is certainly being denied and security is no doubt an important reason," UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Mukesh Kapila told IRIN. "However, because the clearance system for travel permits does not appear to have adequate transparency we cannot tell whether a denial to travel is based entirely on the grounds of security or whether there are other reasons for denying access." 
Areas held by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) rebel group have not received medical aid for months and only limited food supplies.
"The reports, allegations of human rights violations are too persistent, too systematic, too repetitive from different sources to not be given credibility," Kapila noted.
"Under those circumstances and with the mounting evidence, one must say there is a prima facie case that some of the denials of access may well be related to the discomfort of the parties concerned to allow international witnesses," he added. 
However, the acting governor in Nyala, Adam Idris Al Silaik, told IRIN it was "too difficult" to send aid to rebel-held areas. 
"I agree that transparency is important but we as a government assure you that the NGOs are our guests and we are supposed to protect them," he said. He described the Arab Janjaweed militias, held responsible for the much of the disorder, as a "group of thieves". 
But he added that the situation in southern Darfur was calm and "under control". 
Humanitarian sources said rebel-held areas around Teigi, Kedineer, Yara, and East Jebel Mara in southern Darfur were not receiving any aid at all.
Eric Vraalsen, the UN special humanitarian envoy for Sudan, urged the Sudanese authorities to "come out in the open" on security issues and said it was imperative that all parties to the conflict agree to "a humanitarian ceasefire" that guaranteed unimpeded access to aid.
Sudanese officials deny claims that the government is backing the Arab militias. Dr Sula Feldeen, the national humanitarian aid commissioner told IRIN the militias were "defending" their property and supporting the government's "attempt to fight the rebellion movement". 
He said all of Sudan's tribes had been asked to defend themselves from the rebels, not just Arabs. "No tribe was excluded," he said. "Some are coming forward and some are not. This does not mean that the government is biased against one group." 
Meanwhile, peace talks between the government and the SLM/A - due to take place on 10 December -  have been postponed. Attempts are underway to bring Darfur's second rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, into the process but have so far yielded no results. 
The militias, which are considered by humanitarian actors to be the main aggressors in the conflict, are not part of the peace process. 

5 December: The two key figures in the Sudan peace talks are meeting, today, to discuss the final stages of a peace agreement. First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and the leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), John Garang, will meet at Lake Naivasha in Kenya. At the same time SPLA officials will travel to the capital, Khartoum, for the first time in a 20-year civil war. The unprecedented visit by SPLA officials to Khartoum as guests of the government is a mark of just how far the two sides have come. However, the authorities and the rebels have yet to agree on how to share power and oil wealth. Also: Whether Islamic law will apply in the capital, Khartoum; How oil revenue is to be shared out; what type of international supervision will take place; the status of three central areas: Abyei, Blue Nile State and Nuba Mountains. 6 December: Vice-President Taha and John Garang have begun their talks in Kenya. Yesterday, the rebel delegation received a tumultuous reception in Khartoum. It was the first time Dr Garang's SPLA rebels had entered the city in 20 years of a civil war in which two million people are thought to have died. 9 December: President G.W. Bush telephones Sudan's President and John Garang urging them to sign a peace deal. 

The UN head of Emergency Relief Coordination, Jan Egeland, has expressed concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, western Sudan, and urged the warring sides to desist from deliberately attacking civilians.
In a statement issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Egeland said insecurity in Darfur had now reached "unprecedented levels", due to fighting between forces loyal to the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
"The humanitarian situation in Darfur has quickly become one of the worst in the world," Egeland said. "I remind combatants of their obligation to minimise the impact of their hostilities on civilian populations, in accordance with international law."
The fighting in Darfur which escalated in March this year, has driven an estimated 670,000 people from their homes, 70,000 of whom have fled across the border into neighbouring Chad. 
At the same time, humanitarian access to the region has been constrained by restrictions on travel permits and insecurity caused by militia activity and banditry.
Egeland warned of severe shortages of food, shelter, water and sanitation among the displaced people and urged donors to quickly intervene to avert a worsening situation. So far, he said, only US $12 million, out of the $22.8 million requested by the UN under the "Greater Darfur Special Initiative", launched in September, had been received. 
"As the need for aid grows, stocks of relief materials are dwindling. Additional supplies are in the pipeline, but unless urgent additional funding is received, a pipeline break is possible at the end of this month," he warned.

A crucial round of talks, between the Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) resumed on Monday with both sides reiterating their earlier commitment to reach a final agreement before the end of the year. During the talks, being held in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, the parties are expected to hammer out the final details of a comprehensive peace agreement to end the country's 20-year civil war. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, Sudanese deputy ambassador to Kenya, told IRIN from Naivasha that a target date of 20 December had already been set by both parties and mediators to sign a draft accord. The first four days of the talks would be dedicated to technical details, he said, after which Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and SPLM/A leader John Garang were expected to arrive on 5 December to begin high level negotiations. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38169]

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has sent a high profile "goodwill delegation" to meet government officials in Khartoum, as peace talks shifted into final gear in the Kenyan town of Naivasha. 
SPLM/A spokesman George Garang told IRIN on Friday that a delegation, comprising senior members of the rebel movement, left Kenya on Thursday for Khartoum, for the first time since the rebel movement was launched in 1983. 
The delegation would pass through Uganda and Libya and was expected in Khartoum on Friday. It would send a message to the Sudanese people that the current momentum towards peace was "irreversible", Garang said. 
"This is a very serious development," he stressed. "We have sent the delegation to tell the people of Sudan that peace is inevitable. Some of us have been away from Sudan for 23 years."
The delegation, led by Senior Commander Bagan Amom and SPLM official spokesman Samson Kwaje, would be received by government officials and would participate in an "elaborate programme" which would also include meetings with civil society groups, trade unions and political parties, Garang said. 
The Sudanese government has welcomed the visit. In statement, foreign ministry undersecretary  Mutrif Sidiq said the "idea of the visit" was presented by First Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha to SPLM/A leader Johan Garang, who in turn encouraged the visit, the Sudanese news agency SUNA reported. 
Cirino Hiteng, a Sudanese political consultant and analyst, said he was optimistic that the visit  would give the necessary boost to the peace process at this final stage of the talks. 
"I think peace is imminent. It is just a matter of time," Hiteng told IRIN. "We have reached a stage of no return. The parties have to make compromises."
Meanwhile, talks which resumed in Naivasha on Monday, are "on schedule" with both vice president Taha and SPLM/A leader John Garang expected to arrive by Saturday, Garang said.
Two committees have so far been set up to smooth out the remaining difficult issues of power sharing and the administrative status of three disputed areas.

The rebels of Darfur, in battle against the Sudan government troops, have no intention of renewing the truce undersigned in September that expires today. “We have no interests in peace talks, because the aggressions by the government continue”, stated to the United Nations ‘Irin news’ agency Ahmad Abd al-Shafi, spokesman of the SLA-M (Sudan Liberation Army-Movement). The cease-fire, which the parts accuse each other of violating, was signed September 3 in Chad and at the start of November extended for a month. “There has been no cessation of the hostilities”, he reiterated. The spokesman of the rebels of the Darfur – an isolated region around 1000km west of the capital Khartoum – also stated that the government of Chad, in quality of mediator, has proposed a negotiation. “We cannot participate – stated Al-Shafi – unless some points are taken in consideration”. The conflict escalated in the past weeks, due to Arab armed gangs that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. According to the UN, some 600-thousand Sudanese have been forced to abandon certain areas of Darfur; a great majority have sought refuge along the border with Chad, others in some inhabited zones. The wide insecurity renders the zone inaccessible to humanitarian organisations to bring assistance to the population. The independent ‘Our Times’ weekly of Chad yesterday denounced that “the situation is critical and a humanitarian catastrophe is imminent”, accusing the government of N’Djamena of silencing the unfolding drama.

The resumption of a ceasefire agreement between the Sudanese government and Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) in Darfur, western Sudan, is highly unlikely, according to the rebel group.
"We have no interest in going to peace talks. There will be nothing new, there will be continued aggression from the government,"  SLM/A spokesman Ahmad Abd al-Shafi told IRIN on Wednesday.
The frequently violated agreement, which was brokered by Chad on 3 September, was renewed on 4 November for one month. "This ceasefire is a waste of time," said al-Shafi. "There is no ceasefire."
He added that the SLM had been requested to attend fresh peace talks by the Chadian government, which has brokered the ceasefire deal to date. "Unless we settle some points we cannot go to talks," he said. 
The Darfur conflict has escalated since early November with an upsurge in Arab militia activity, which has left western Darfur largely inaccessible. Amnesty International says there is "compelling evidence" of government involvement in the attacks, charges which the government denies. Observers say the government may have lost control over the militias to varying degrees. They also point to possible splits in the SLM leadership, although al-Shafi denied this. 
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a second rebel group which was not party to the ceasefire agreement, has also rapidly gained strength in western Darfur
Regional analysts say the rise in support for the JEM may be attributable to the fact that the SLM advocates a secular state in Darfur, a religiously conservative part of northern Sudan. Meanwhile, humanitarian access remains largely blocked in the region, with only a handful of aid agencies granted permission by the government to enter and work there. The NGO, Save the Children, said on Tuesday that current malnutrition rates in Darfur were reported to be "alarmingly high" with global acute malnutrition rates reaching 25 percent in some areas, which remained inaccessible to aid workers. 
"The precarious nutritional situation of children and their families could dramatically deteriorate should a disease break out, or should they be displaced further," it said in a statement. 

The rebels and government of Sudan have extended the cease-fire signed last year for another two months. The announcement was made by the mediators of the IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authorities for Development), the regional organism of the Horn of Africa that guided the entire negotiation, which started at the end of 2002 in Machakos (Kenya), to end the civil war between Khartoum and the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army). The news of the extension of the truce comes just two days from the resumption of the talks between the side in Naivasha (Kenya), which should bring to the signing of a definitive accord by the end of the war. “In certainty that all will be over by the end of 2003, we in fact only extended the truce for two months instead of the usual 90 days”, stated IGAD mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo during the ceremony for the renewal of the cease-fire. There is however some cautious optimism, observers in fact advanced the doubts that a final accord would not be reached before the first months of 2004. The works are not only slowed down by the religious festivities, Muslim (Ramadan) and Christian (Christmas), but also the lack of an agreement between the sides on some aspects of the accord. The remaining unresolved points are in fact not secondary, despite international pressures, the sides still have to define control over control of the southern oil zones and relative proceeds.

Over the last five days, 210 people have been killed in fighting between militias and a rebel group on the outskirts of Junaynah, western Darfur, according to a local rebel group. 
Armed Arab militias had burned down three villages in the area, killing 24 people, injuring 18, and looting everything in sight, Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) told IRIN. The rebel group and local civilians retalitated by killing 186 members of the militias, he said. 
Without any international monitors in the region, there is no independent confirmation of the figures. 
Many of the Arab militia members came from neighbouring Chad, al-Nur told IRIN. "The Sudanese government gives them money and weapons and support from its soldiers," he claimed. 
On Thursday Amnesty International said there was "compelling evidence" that at least some elements of the Sudanese army were supporting the militias. 
The government has consistently denied the allegations. 
"Farming communities are being pushed off their land towards the city of Junaynah and elsewhere, while nomadic people supported by the militias are using their land for pasture," al-Nur said. 
"Those who have not been displaced are too scared to work in their fields because of the militia presence," he added. "We are calling on the humanitarian community to come to the area to know what's happening." 
The lack of travel permits being granted by the Sudanese government, coupled with general insecurity, is preventing aid agencies from supplying urgently needed humanitarian aid.

There is "compelling evidence" that the government of Sudan is "largely responsible" for the abuses and humanitarian crisis in Darfur, western Sudan, said rights group Amnesty International (AI) in a statement on Thursday. 
Arab militia groups responsible for attacks on farming communities which have killed thousands, contained well armed and uniformed elements of the Sudanese army, AI researcher Benedicte Goderiaux told IRIN. 
Following interviews with refugees from Darfur who have fled to neighbouring Chad, AI said it had come to the "the bleak conclusion that at least some elements in the army" were encouraging the devastation. According to the UN, 600,000 people have been displaced since February. 
"Refugee after refugee, in widely scattered areas, told how militias armed with kalashnikovs and other weapons, including bazookas, often dressed in green army uniforms, raided villages, burnt houses and crops and killed people and cattle," the statement said. Allegations of abductions, rape of women, and torture in detention had also been made. 
The Sudanese government has repeatedly denied backing the Arab militia groups in Darfur, known as the Janjaweed, but has committed itself to controlling them. At the very least, AI said it had "totally failed in its obligation to protect its own people". 
Goderiaux said she would be "cautious" about describing the attacks as ethnic cleansing. The attacks have mainly targeted the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, which make up two rebel movements - the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement - fighting for political and economic rights. 
Goderiaux warned that the conflict, which is currently centered in northern and western Darfur, had the potential to spread further and become a fullscale civil war. 
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Thursday said the security situation along the Chadian border was deteriorating, as the militias launched "bolder and more aggressive attacks". 
Over a three-week period, the militias had launched six raids on refugee and Chadian communities close to the border, stealing hundreds of cattle and killing a Chadian villager, the agency said. In another attack Arab militias had torched six villages over the border from Borota. 
Meanwhile, the lack of travel permits being granted by the Sudanese government, coupled with general insecurity, is preventing aid agencies from supplying urgently needed humanitarian aid. - http://www.amnesty.org

The "marginalised majority" in Sudan, including rebel groups fighting against the government in the country's only remaining battlefield, Darfur, will not accept a bilateral peace agreement between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), according to a Darfur rebel group. 
"A deal between the SPLM/A and the government will not bring peace to Sudan," Dr Khalil Ibrahim, the exiled chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told IRIN from France. "This agreement is not fair for the other regions. The SPLM does not represent the other regions, only the south." 
Ibrahim told IRIN a peace agreement that excluded Sudan's other rebel groups could never be a "comprehensive agreement", and would instead lead to an escalation of fighting in Darfur and other areas. Fighting would "flare up" in eastern Sudan and Kordofan, he said, as rebel groups emerged which felt their grievances were not being represented. 
"After a peace agreement between the SPLM and the government there will be heavy fighting," said Khalil. "It will be a period of dictatorship sponsored by the international community." 
The JEM had already established some contacts with other groups, such as the Beja, in eastern Sudan, he said, and "was moving in the direction" of a coordinated military response. 
Various groups would try to topple the Sudanese government, led by President Umar al-Bashir, which would not be able to hold on to its limited power-base for much longer, he added. "The north is not just one entity; it is made up of five separate regions. Since 1956, we have been ruled by elites from the northern region, but we are the majority. The population of Darfur and Kordofan account for over 50 percent of the total population," he said. "Power will be taken over by the marginalised majority." 
Numerous but unsuccessful calls have been made by the opposition in northern Sudan, as well as rebel groups, to allow broad participation in the peace talks taking place between the government and the SPLM/A in neighbouring Kenya. The two sides have said a comprehensive agreement can be reached by the end of the year, following the next session of talks due to convene on 30 November. 
Meanwhile, the conflict in Darfur has escalated steadily since the beginning of the year. Since February, fighting between government soldiers, mililita groups - which the government has been accused of supporting - and rebel groups has killed thousands of people and displaced about 600,000, with a further 65,000 to 70,000 fleeing to neighbouring Chad. 
The JEM took up arms in February 2003 to fight against the long-term marginalisation of Darfur. Independent of the better known Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), it says it is fighting for an autonomous state within a unified Sudan, and equal sharing of power, resources and wealth. 
"Our objective is to improve the quality of life for the whole of Sudan," said Khalil, adding that Darfur was "just a starting point". He said the JEM and SLM/A had similar objectives, but the JEM had "a broader base" with troops and supporters stationed in Kordofan and other areas. 
Since mid-November, heavy fighting has reportedly taken place in western Darfur between the JEM, and the government and militia groups operating in the region. 
According to Ibrahim many of the militias the JEM forces have clashed with are from Chad, who are being paid by Sudanese elements to fight and have been given a licence to loot Sudanese property.

International oil companies in Sudan share full responsibility with the Sudanese government for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians from oil concession areas, as well as countless other human rights abuses, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Oil company executives had "turned a blind eye" to well-reported government attacks on civilians and civilian targets, including aerial bombings of hospitals, churches, relief operations and schools, it said in a new report entitled "Sudan, Oil and Human Rights". 
"Oil companies operating in Sudan were aware of the killing, bombing and looting, that took place in the south, all in the name of opening up the oilfields," said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for HRW. "These facts were repeatedly brought to their attention in public and private meetings, but they continued to operate and make a profit as the devastation went on."
But the international oil companies have repeatedly denied any complicity. Canadian Talisman repeatedly claimed it was a force for good in the region by providing "development" opportunities for local Sudanese, and adopting a set of "Sudan Operating Principles" which promoted human rights protection, HRW said. 
It also went as far as paying for costly satellite photographs by an "expert" to "prove" that no displacement had taken place at all, but limited the scope of the project to several small areas inside its concession, the report added.
Sudanese government oil revenues rose from zero in 1998 to almost 42 percent of total government revenue in 2001. According to the government, 60 percent of the US $580 million received in oil revenue in 2001 was absorbed by its military for foreign weapons and a domestic arms industry.
[To access the HRW report click on the following: - http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/sudanprint.pdf ]

The international NGO, Medair, is struggling to establish who abducted and held four of its staff along with a government official in western Darfur, northern Sudan, almost two weeks ago. 
The five Sudanese were abducted after Medair lost contact with them on 11 November while they were distributing kits for displaced people around Silea and Kolbus, in western Darfur.
The aid workers were handed over to safety on Saturday afternoon by a local rebel group, the Justice and Equality movement (JEM), to Chadian authorities and staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres in the border town of Tine. 
But how the abductees came into the hands of JEM, and who abducted them in the first place remains uncertain, Erik Volkmar Chief Executive Officer of Medair told IRIN. He said probably either a militia group or bandits in the area were responsible. "We're not quite sure at this time who this group was," he added. 
He said the four Medair workers were believed to be in "good condition" and were expected to arrive back in Geneina, western Darfur, on Tuesday. 
Medair staff were informed by JEM on 17 November that it was holding the aid workers. "They really protected them and tried to find the best way to release them," said Volkmar. "The JEM wanted to be sure that they would be safe and that there would be some kind of international presence on the ground before they handed them over."
The rebel group claims to have "rescued" the workers from Arab militias and said it had not released them immediately in case they were kidnapped again.
Volkmar said he was very impressed with the "regularity" of the JEM's behaviour, adding that the group appeared to be concerned about getting more humanitarian aid into the war-torn region.
Hundreds of thousands of people have either been displaced, or fled to neighbouring Chad as a result of the insecurity. UN sources told IRIN that this month alone, tens of thousands of people had been displaced in the southern part of the region. 
Meanwhile, aid delivery in the area has come to a standstill because of insecurity and the lack of travel permits being given out by the Sudanese government on the grounds of the insecurity.
A spokesman for the main rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, told IRIN that a ceasefire agreement, renewed with the government on 4 November, had broken down completely. Attempts made by the Chadian authorities to bring the two sides together for peace talks had also failed, said spokesman Ahmad Abd al-Shafi.

Five aid workers, nearly all employees of the Swiss non-governmental organisation ‘MEDAIR’, that went missing in Darfur (south-western region of Sudan) several days ago, are in good health conditions. It was reported directly by MEDAIR, confirming that four of its Sudanese workers and the government employee had been handed over on Saturday night on the border with neighbouring Chad, and were now in good health in Chad. President of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Khalil Ibrahim, told Reuters from the Netherlands: ''We released the workers in the town of Tina to officials from Medecins Sans Frontieres, witnessed by the Chadian government.'' 
He said his group had rescued the workers after they were captured in the western Darfur region by Arab militias. His group did not release them immediately for fear they would be kidnapped again, he said. MEDAIR said earlier the five had gone missing just north of Geneina town, near Sudan's border with Chad. The five, all Sudanese nationals, were in a vehicle that set out Nov. 10 with three truckloads of aid for distribution in the towns of Silea and Kolbus, MEDAIR said. The three rented trucks returned to the MEDAIR base camp but their drivers had no information about the missing vehicle's whereabouts. 
The Khartoum government had accused another western rebel group, the SLA-M (Sudan’s Liberation Army-Movement) of abducting the workers and killing two of them, a charge which was denied by the SLA-M. Sudanese aid workers working for the US agency ‘USaid’ were killed in Darfur. In this isolated and semi desert area of the country, attacks carried out by Arab nomad tribes against the local population are quite frequent. The SLA-M, formed in August 2001 with the name of Darfur liberation movement, in February organised itself against the Khartoum authorities, accused of ignoring Darfur and not protecting the local population, exposed to the violence of Arab gangs. 
The Khartoum government and SLA-M signed a 45-day truce brokered by Chad on 6 August which was renewed in the past few days, but the Darfur guerrillas have repeatedly accused the authorities of failing to respect it. MEDAIR is one of the few international NGO’s that still operate in Darfur, where it commenced to work in 2001 with basic health programs. ``In spite of the increasing insecurity affecting this area, MEDAIR remains fully committed to continue its emergency response activities to support as many of these displaced people as possible,'' the agency said. Since last summer, following clashes between the SLA-m and the Sudanese government, MEDAIR has been assisting hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. American and UN officials estimate that at least 7,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands more forced to flee their homes since fighting began earlier this year in Darfur, home to nearly one-fifth of Sudan's 30 million people.

22 November: Sudanese rebel leader John Garang says there is a good chance of reaching a peace deal by the end of the year. Mr Garang -- leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) -- was speaking after talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. The US wants a deal to be reached by the end of December. Mr Garang said he considered that date more of an expression of hope than a formal deadline for the peace talks resuming in Kenya on 30 November. The talks, aimed at ending two decades of civil war, were adjourned for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The 20 years of fighting pitting rebels from the Christian and animist south against the Islamic government has left more than 1.5 million people dead. "We hope that we will reach a final, just and comprehensive agreement before the end of the year," Mr Garang said after a meeting Mr Powell in Washington. Outstanding issues are: Whether Islamic law will apply in the capital, Khartoum; How oil revenue is shared out; What type of international supervision will take place; The status of three central areas: Abyei; Blue Nile State and Nuba Mountains 

22 November: Rebels in western Sudan have accused the government of violating a truce with airstrikes and militia raids that killed 30 people, mostly civilians. The government said it knew nothing of the attacks in the arid Darfur area, where the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) emerged as a fighting force in February, saying Khartoum had marginalized the impoverished region. "It's been very bad. Attacks by government militias and the air raid have killed 30 people and lots of livestock," SLM/A Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi told Reuters by phone from western Sudan. Minnawi said 24 of the dead were civilians and the rest rebel fighters. He said the attacks had started on 20 November and continued into 22 November in the west of Northern Darfur state, about 850 kilometres west of the capital, Khartoum. "They used an Antonov airplane to bomb civilians areas today (22 November)," he said. In Khartoum, Internal Affairs Minister Major General Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein said he had not heard of any attacks in the area. 24 November: Rebels in the west of Sudan have released four aid workers, and a Sudan government employee they said they rescued from another militia who kidnapped them. An official from MEDAIR, a Swiss-based aid agency, confirmed four of its Sudanese workers and the government employee had been handed over on the night of 22 November, on the border with neighbouring Chad, and were now in good health in Chad. President of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Khalil Ibrahim, told Reuters from the Netherlands: "We released the workers in the town of Tina to officials from Médécins Sans Frontières, witnessed by the Chadian government." He said his group had rescued the workers after they were captured in the western Darfur region by Arab militias. His group did not release them immediately for fear they would be kidnapped again, he said. The Khartoum government had accused the SLM/A of abducting the workers and killing two of them, a charge that group denied. 

At least ten civilians were reportedly killed in a government force bombing of some villages and rebel posts in the region of Darfur, in West Sudan. The report came from sources of the rebel movement, the SLA-M (Sudan Liberation Army-Movement). Abdallah Hassaballah, speaking to the AFP agency from Cairo, accused the government of Khartoum of ‘flagrant violation’ of the truce undersigned September 3. 
He added that the Sudan government attack struck the zone of Cornei, around 130km north of El-Fasher, main city of the partial-desert region of Darfur. According to the same source, the toll of the attack was of at least ten dead, including women and children, and numerous wounded. For the moment there are no confirmations from independent sources, given also to the difficulty to reach the remote zone of Sudan. 
The SLA-M and military exchange mutual accusations of violations of the truce reached two months ago. Since the start of 2003 the fighting escalated between the sides, causing an exodus of tens of thousands of people toward the border with Chad. The anti-government movement of Darfur, formed in 2001, at the start of this year turned into an actual rebellion, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the region and not guaranteeing security to the local population, constantly exposed to the actions of Islamic criminal gangs that in few years claimed over 2,000 lives

The cargo plane that crashed last Monday in southern Sudan. Killing all 13 passengers, was transporting $3,5 million. It was referred by Sudanese press sources, which specified that the Russian-made four-engine Anatov-12 cargo plane caught fire and exploded Monday as it prepared to land at Wau airport, 1000 km southwest of the capital, Khartoum. Local authorities say the cause of the crash is being investigated. 
The explosion killed everyone on board -- six foreign crew members (four Armenians, a Russian and two Uzbeks), three security officials, a Bank of Sudan official, a Saria engineer, a security policeman and a military policeman. It is not yet clear whether the plane was shot down or whether the crash is due to technical problems. Meanwhile, in the absence of evidence, the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) – which in the past shot down planes – denied being responsible for the accident. Monday’s accident is the last of a long series. In recent years, one civil airline and several military planes have crashed in Sudan. 
A Sudanese airliner crashed July 8 near the Red Sea coast, leaving a baby boy as the sole survivor among the 116 passengers aboard the plane bound for Khartoum. The crash was blamed on technical faults. A sandstorm was blamed for an accident in April 2002 that killed 14 senior officers, including a deputy defence minister who directed the war against rebels in southern Sudan. In Upper Nile state in February 1998, a military plane crash killed Sudan's first vice president, General al-Zubair Mohammed Saleh, and 25 other people. The accident occurred at the airport at Nassir, in the southern part of the state, when the plane missed an emergency landing. In June 1999, 50 people, including six officers, died when a military plane crashed due to an unspecified technical problem in the eastern state of Kassala, near Ethiopia, officials said

Five aid workers, nearly all employees of the Swiss non-governmental organisation ‘Medair’, have been missing in Darfur (south-western region of Sudan) for a week. The five, all Sudanese nationals, were in a vehicle that set out Nov. 10 with three truckloads of aid for distribution in the towns of Silea and Kolbus, Medair said. The three rented trucks returned to the Medair base camp but their drivers had no information about the missing vehicle's whereabouts. ``Since then, intensive effort has been made into trying to locate them,'' Medair said without giving further details. 
Last month nine Sudanese aid workers working for the US agency ‘USaid’ were killed in Darfur. In this isolated and semi desert area of the country, attacks carried out by Arab nomad tribes against the local population are quite frequent. The SLA-M (Sudan’s Liberation Army-Movement), formed in August 2001 with the name of Darfur liberation movement, in February organised itself against the Khartoum authorities, accused of ignoring Darfur and not protecting the local population, exposed to the violence of Arab gangs. 
The Khartoum government and SLA-M signed a 45-day truce brokered by Chad on 6 August which was renewed in the past few days, but the Darfur guerrillas have repeatedly accused the authorities of failing to respect it. Medair is one of the few international NGO’s that still operate in Darfur, where it commenced to work in 2001 with basic health programs. ``In spite of the increasing insecurity affecting this area, Medair remains fully committed to continue its emergency response activities to support as many of these displaced people as possible,'' the agency said. 
Since last summer, following clashes between the SLA-m and the Sudanese government, Medair has been assisting hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. American and UN officials estimate that at least 7,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands more forced to flee their homes since fighting began earlier this year in Darfur, home to nearly one-fifth of Sudan's 30 million people

The Medicines sans Frontieres international humanitarian organisation has said its teams are treating over 5,000 malaria patients each week in Bahr el Ghazal province, south central Sudan, following an outbreak of the disease in the region.
The agency said its team had treated 52,000 patients since the end of June, including 800 severe cases - a marked increase from previous years. It was still expecting to treat a high number patients until the end of the year. 
"Malaria is endemic in this region, but there has been a sustained increase in the numbers of cases this year, compared with previous years," Greg Elder, MSF medical coordinator for Sudan said in a statement. 
According to Elder, the number of consultations and hospitalisations in Akuem, one of its treatment locations in Bahr el Ghazal, "exploded" in July, a month earlier than the usual peak of August.
MSF has attributed this year's surge in malaria cases to the unusually heavy rains, which converted most of the region into marshland. 
The organisation said it had set up additional mobile clinics in the region.
"Two years of drought and a heavier rainy season have created ideal conditions for the mosquito, the vector of malaria," the MSF statement added.

The government of the Blue Nile State (south-east Sudan) called on Khartoum authorities for a form of autonomy during the 6-year transition period foreseen by the peace plan being defined with the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army). According to the independent Al-Ayam newspaper, ninety-some representatives of the administration and dignitaries of the Blue Nile State met in the capital Ed-Damazine (around 550km south of Khartoum) to “restore confidence” between the regime of Sudan President Omar al Bashir and local authorities. 
Control over this region is in fact still in discussion between the sides involved in the twenty-year conflict. During the Ed-Damazine meeting the participants reiterated their rejection of any form of military control of the Blue Nile by the south Sudan rebellion. According to the paper, the delegates asked the central government for the urgent introduction of an emergency programme before the signing of the final accord between the government of Khartoum and SPLA, which could take place at the start of 2004. A delegation of the Blue Nile administration, made up by tribal and traditional chiefs, is expected in the capital in the next days to discuss the requests with the government of Al Bashir

Concern grows over deteriorating situation in Darfur

Concern continued to mount this week over increased displacement and a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, western Sudan, with calls for the international community to intervene in order to avert a humanitarian crisis in the region.
The UN warned that the situation in Darfur may emerge as the worst humanitarian crisis in Sudan since 1998, owing to rising displacement and declining access to the area because of insecurity. 
In a statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that insecurity had continued to cause displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and had hampered relief operations. "Humanitarian access is in some cases nonexistent, and there are few aid workers in the area," the statement said.
OCHA said despite ceasefire agreements between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) - the rebel movement operating in the region - humanitarian access was also uneven due to travel permit restrictions. 
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, said a humanitarian clause should be added to the currently negotiated ceasefire, allowing for unimpeded access to all vulnerable populations and for the protection of vulnerable civilians and humanitarian personnel.
And the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, who this week visited Sudan in preparation for the possible return of thousands of Sudanese refugees from neighbouring countries, also expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Darfur. He urged the authorities to grant full access to humanitarian organisations. 
Lubbers told reporters in Sudan it was a "tragedy" that a country that was making peace was at the same time producing refugees. 
Contacted by IRIN for comment on the situation in Darfur, Sudan's Humanitarian Commissioner Sulaf El Din Salih said he could not discuss "such sensitive matters" over the phone. 
However, a local daily newspaper in Khartoum on Thursday said the commissioner had criticised the OCHA statement, accusing the UN of failing to address its concern over Darfur through the "official channels". 
"The measure taken by the organisation was inappropriate and we advise the UN to focus on its field work instead of press statements," 'Al-Adwa' newspaper quoted him as saying.
Abdulaziz Yahya, a political director of the SLM/A, told IRIN that no humanitarian assistance had so far reached the displaced people of Darfur, and he accused the government of restricting access to the area. 
"Now it is a very bad situation. No humanitarian support has arrived here. Our people are suffering more and more," Yahya said.
"We call on international organisations and the UN to come and see the suffering of our people," he stressed. 
He added that militias, known as Janjaweed, which were looting property and pushing civilians off their land, had attacked 49 villages in northern and western Darfur over the past two weeks. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador in Nairobi, told IRIN that he did not have "much information" on the situation in Darfur and could therefore not comment on the issue.
Since March this year, over half a million people have been displaced in Darfur, in addition to 70,000 who have fled to neighbouring Chad, according to OCHA. 
On 4 November, the Sudan government and SLM/A extended a ceasefire agreement for one month at a signing ceremony in the Chadian town of Abeche. [See IRIN story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37662]

The Khartoum government and rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) will probably not reach a peace accord before the end of the year, contrary to assurances made by the sides to US State Secretary Colin Powell. This was the statement made in an interview with Reuters by the number two of the SPLA, Salva Kiir Mayardit, underlining that an accord may instead be reached in the two first months of 2004.
 “We will resume negotiations November 30 and these are still unresolved matters on the table”, stated Mayardit. Despite international pressures for an accord, there are some key factors still on the line, such as the division of control over the oil resources in the south and relative proceeds. No agreements have been found on this second point. 
The government wants 90% of the entries from the sale of South Sudan crude oil, while the rebels want %80 and mediators are pushing for a 50-50 solution. Also the destiny of three key areas remains up in the air (Blue Nile, Nuba Mounts and Abyei), which both sides claim control over. Meanwhile, the national 'Suna' agency referred that Khartoum yesterday discussed a plan with the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) for the repatriation of half a million of Sudan refugees. The 570-thousand expatriates (spread in 6 different African nations) will return as soon as the government and rebels sign a definitive peace accord to end two decades of war, which has claimed over two million lives

The peace talks to end two decades of civil war in Sudan will resume November 30. The news was referred by Salva Kiir, representative of the delegation of rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) in Cairo. In the meetings in the Egyptian capital the SPLA delegates met with the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, inviting him to attend the negotiations due to open at the end of the month in Naivasha (Kenya), not far from the capital Nairobi. 
Sudan President Omer al Beshir two days ago declared that the next round of talks between his government and rebellion could resume before the established date. The remaining issues to be discussed between the sides are the division of powers, distribution of oil proceeds and control of three regions of Central Sudan, At the end of October, in the presence of US State Secretary Colin Powell, the government of Khartoum and rebels pledged to reach a final accord by December 31. Since 1983 the SPLA has been combating against the Khartoum government for autonomy and independence of the South. The conflict has so far claimed over 2-million lives, for the most part civilians that have died also from famine and disease

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, on a visit to Sudan, said on Tuesday his agency was making plans for the return of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees, should a peace agreement be signed as expected before the end of this year. The agency warned that the operation would be one of the "most challenging" of recent times. 
"Once the peace process is concluded, then the real work starts for us," Lubbers said. "UNHCR is looking at how to support the peace agreement once it is signed and is trying to ensure that we are ready to move once this has happened."
Lubbers was in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on the third leg of a four-nation Africa tour that has already taken him to Tanzania and Burundi. In Khartoum, he discussed the prospects for repatriating Sudanese refugees with President Umar Hassan al-Bashir, and on Wednesday was due to travel to southern Sudan to meet Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) leader John Garang. 
According to a UNHCR statement, Lubbers was "closely watching" progress in the peace talks, currently in recess and due to reopen on 30 November in Naivasha, Kenya. "The last mile in the peace talks should not take too long," Lubbers said. 
Sudan's 20-year conflict has displaced an estimated 4 million people internally, with another 570,000 Sudanese refugees living in neighbouring states as refugees. The bulk of these refugees [about 223,000] live in Uganda, followed by Ethiopia [88,000] and Kenya [69,000m], UNHCR said. 
Bashir told Lubbers he was hopeful that the much-awaited peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A would be signed before the end of the year, and would allow for the return of the millions of Sudanese displaced within and outside the country, the UNHCR statement added. 
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the Sudanese deputy ambassador in Nairobi, said on Wednesday it was "encouraging to hear that UNHCR was ready to carry out such a large task".  He told IRIN that the signing of the agreement would be followed by a six-year transition period, during which both Sudanese parties were expected to "work out modalities" of the repatriation of refugees and internally displaced people.
"We are supposed to sit together, the government, SPLM/A, countries hosting Sudanese refugees and partners like UNHCR, and prepare for refugees to get back home. But whether this will be finalised at the end of the interim period will remain to be seen," Dirdeiry said. 
UNHCR said it expected to aid the repatriation of up to 110,000 Sudanese refugees during the first year of the return operation to Sudan. It admitted that such a task would be "one of the most challenging in recent times", in view of the level of destruction and the near-total collapse of infrastructure in southern Sudan.

The peace talks to end two decades of civil war in Sudan will resume November 30. The news was referred by Salva Kiir, representative of the delegation of rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) in Cairo. In the meetings in the Egyptian capital the SPLA delegates met with the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, inviting him to attend the negotiations due to open at the end of the month in Naivasha (Kenya), not far from the capital Nairobi. Sudan President Omer al Beshir two days ago declared that the next round of talks between his government and rebellion could resume before the established date. The remaining issues to be discussed between the sides are the division of powers, distribution of oil proceeds and control of three regions of Central Sudan, At the end of October, in the presence of US State Secretary Colin Powell, the government of Khartoum and rebels pledged to reach a final accord by December 31. Since 1983 the SPLA has been combating against the Khartoum government for autonomy and independence of the South. The conflict has so far claimed over 2-million lives, for the most part civilians that have died also from famine and disease

10 November: A humanitarian disaster is looming in western Sudan where over half a million people have been displaced by fighting, warns the United Nations. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in the arid region and militia groups are terrorising the civilian population. The UN complains that humanitarian access is also being restricted by the Sudanese authorities. It says it has only 10% of the funding it wants and needs international help. The UN is also demanding unimpeded access to Darfur, accusing the Sudanese authorities of failing to honour a recent agreement. The fighting in Darfur escalated dramatically in February this year, pitting a local rebel movement against government-backed militias. Observers in Khartoum say it is at heart a conflict over the region's increasingly scarce resources. 

Both the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have said that once a peace agreement has been signed, the return of the country's refugees and internally displaced to their homes will be a key priority. 
Both sides are keen to see people move freely after 36 years of conflict out of 47 since independence.
But for the local authorities, donors, UN and aid agencies grappling with the prospect of 570,000 Sudanese refugees, and between 3 million and 4 million displaced returning home en masse, the challenges ahead are staggering.
With no reliable population statistics available for Sudan as a whole, and certainly no accurate statistics on the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs), or whether and when they may choose to return, much of the necessary planning is based on assumptions. 
Even the term IDP is misleading as a coverall for Sudan's displaced southerners, many of whom fled for their lives from conflict, while many others - especially those in and around the capital, Khartoum - are economic migrants.
Nevertheless, agencies and NGOs are trying to prepare themselves, and some donors are granting project funding for areas in advance of returnees moving there. 
But everyone involved agrees that the uncertainties are huge. "No one knows at all how many will return home," Stephen Houston, a senior IDP adviser in the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator in Khartoum, told IRIN.
The only certainty is that if people do move quickly, they will experience tremendous hardship as they walk for days across a country the size of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda combined. With practically no roads, health care, sanitation facilities or infrastructure of any kind to welcome them, they will be vulnerable to hunger and outbreaks of disease both en route and when they arrive. 
Keeping their deaths to a minimum is one of the key challenges facing the international community. 

The politics of returning home 

"People are going to be induced to move for political reasons," Houston told IRIN. 
Being able to return 'home' will clearly send a positive message both home and abroad about a new, unified, peaceful Sudan. But it is clear that the movement of hundreds of thousands of people into southern Sudan before a referendum is held on self-determination will also have huge political consequences. 
On top of this, elections will be held during the six-year interim period, as well as a population census after three years, which will determine southerners' access to various sources of national funding and services. 
It is considered "very important" to have as many southerners as possible physically in the south before the census, according to Luka Deng, the executive director of the New Sudan Centre for Research, Statistics and Evaluation. 
"It is very important, because of the elections during the interim period, that these people are transported back to their homes so the results will be credible," Samson Kwaje, the SPLM/A spokesman told IRIN.
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, agreed that within three years of signing a peace agreement the vast majority of the displaced should go home. "Definitely by then we would like to see them resettled," he said. "There is the political timetable of the referendum and elections. We want them to move well ahead of the schedule," he said. 
Regional analysts argue that despite losing a cheap source of labour, not having up to two million southerners living in slum areas around the capital - jails are reportedly full of poor southern women who have been caught brewing alcohol - might also be a welcome peace dividend for Khartoum.
The governments of neighbouring Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, which have been hosting large Sudanese refugee populations for years, may also be keen to see them return home. 
Trying to ensure that the movement of Sudan's refugees and displaced is entirely voluntary, and that humanitarian assistance is not furthering the political agendas of either the Sudanese government, the SPLM/A, or the governments of neighbouring states will remain a key challenge. 

Refugee movement 

The vast majority of Sudan's refugees are currently living in Uganda (over 223,000), Ethiopia (over 88,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (almost 70,000), Chad (about 70,000) and Kenya (almost 60,000). There are also sizeable populations in the Central African Republic and Egypt. 
Once a peace deal is signed, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Sudanese authorities and the governments hosting the refugees will form tripartite commissions to map out transport arrangements for returnees. 
Trips will be organised for refugee leaders who will go back to Sudan as a "confidence-building measure" and then report to their communities on the conditions there, Anoushiravan Daneshvar, head of technical support for UNHCR in the East, Horn and Great Lakes regions of Africa told IRIN. The largest numbers come from around Yei, Torit, and Kajo Keji in Equatoria, North Bor in Upper Nile, and southern Blue Nile. 
Those who wish to return will then be bussed across the border to central locations and given a standard "reintegration package" of cooking utensils, blankets, mosquito nets and other items. Meanwhile, UNHCR will undertake "quick impact" projects with NGOs at home to fix schools, clinics, and water points in home villages, while other agencies will begin reconstruction and development projects.
The process will be voluntary, but the official camps hosting over 360,000 of the refugees will close within a few years, effectively forcing the refugees to return home, or apply to host governments for permission to remain - which may or may not be granted. 
The first convoys will probably begin to move after the rainy season in November 2004 - if a peace agreement has been signed - but will be spread out to allow development projects to take root in home communities, said Daneshvar. "Because of the difficulties in the south, with food security, the lack of services and the time it takes to change that, the repatriation should be staggered," he emphasised. 

Internally displaced

The movement of Sudan's displaced, which will be spontaneous, is far harder to control.
The possibility of establishing "way-stations" along key roads and the Nile is being discussed to provide food and medical care for them, and as the only means of registering who is moving where, Houston told IRIN. But the current thinking is that agencies and NGOs should improve conditions in the IDPs' home areas - such as schools and health care - for everyone in the community, instead of singling them out for special treatment or assistance.
This also extends to not providing large-scale transport, which might facilitate the mass movement of people against their will.
Sudan's displaced reportedly number up to 2 million in Khartoum, 700,000 in Darfur, with smaller numbers scattered around the south, the Nuba mountains, southern Blue Nile, and greater Kordofan, all adding up to between 3 million and 4 million. 
But UN officials concede that official figures are often inaccurate, as there is no method of registration or monitoring. Figures provided by SPLM officials are often exaggerated, because over the last 10 years "the only way to get help was to yell IDP", Houston told IRIN. "We created that problem. We funded emergencies and the only way to get help in the south if you're a local administrator is by crying IDP," he said.
Whether people will move quickly, or bide their time as they send family members to investigate conditions at home, is the other great uncertainty. 
A CARE/International Organisation for Migration survey conducted in Khartoum indicated that about two-thirds of the IDPs there wanted to go home as soon as a peace agreement was signed. 
The director of the SPLM's humanitarian wing, Elijah Malok, told IRIN, "People are ready to go, they will go home. Once the guns are silent, they will go home. We just need the resources to resettle them."
But others say the Sudanese will need serious incentives to make them move. "The different reasons why they left will determine whether they go back," Stephen McDowell, information coordinator for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, told IRIN. For those with jobs and schools for their children in urban areas, returning to a rural area with no infrastructure is highly unlikely, he added.
The general uncertainty means that a series of potential problems lie ahead, according to Houston. 
There may be sudden mass movements of people to areas unable to cope with them; the major towns in the south may fill up beyond their capacity; people may return en masse and then move away again, causing chaos; and conflict over land and cattle may escalate hugely with no land registration system in place and a weak southern government.
Rates of HIV infection, currently estimated by UNAIDS at 2.6 percent country-wide, are expected to increase dramatically with the return of the refugees from neighbouring countries with much higher rates. 
Conflict with host communities which will see the refugees being assisted by the international community while they are not, coupled with increased competition for water, land, firewood, and food in certain areas, as well as the economic shocks of mass influxes of people into areas, are further potential sore points. 
Policy makers who are presuming that IDPs will be happy to return to their rural homes may also be disappointed. "It is a challenge for the UN. The planning is rural-oriented - it might take everyone by surprise," Daneshvar told IRIN.
Many of the displaced have had to move so many times that it is extremely difficult to ascertain where they may return to. "In 1991 I went to Bor, but there was fighting against the Nuer. I ran to Torit and then to Kaya, moving in a big crowd. From there I went to Maridi to stay with a sister. Then Yambio, back to Kaya, then Nimule. I was always moving, because there were bombs or rumours that the Arabs were coming. Then I went to Lokichokio [northern Kenya] and Kakuma [refugee camp in northern Kenya]," said one woman.
Some may even travel northwards, not south, to cities in search of jobs and education. Already there are an estimated 22,000 people from the Nuba mountains in Port Sudan for economic reasons.

Women’s predicament 

Despite the fact that women make up two-thirds of the general population in southern Sudan, and three-quarters in conflict areas like Bahr al-Ghazal, they suffer some of the poorest quality-of-life indices in the world.
With an estimated 90 percent illiterate, low self-esteem and very little if any protection offered to them by the legal system, they have little hope of being treated fairly when they return home, say observers.
"Let's have liberation first, and then worry about women's issues," is reportedly a common attitude among those in power, with some of the educated most vehemently opposing women's empowerment.
"[Southern Sudanese] Women have literally no rights to land," Jennifer Nduku Kiiti, a consultant with UNICEF, told IRIN. "There are no laws in place giving them possession of anything. Customary law is relied on heavily that is very limited in terms of protecting women, very male-based," she said.
Statutory law and customary law operate in parallel in southern Sudan, but there are huge problems in making judgments that go against customary law, which was made by men for men, said Kiiti. Compounding this, analysts point out, is the fact that the Sudanese environment is ripe for corruption given its shattered economy, lack of transparency, and a tradition of loyalty and obedience to patriarchal military commanders.
What will happen when tens of thousands of widows descend into this environment to reclaim land and cattle may become one of the country's future tragedies, they note. Many will have to choose between being "inherited" by their husband's clan - land is owned communally - or start a losing battle to regain their former wealth through the village courts.
Many women who have gained a degree of autonomy living without their husbands for several years, or have been educated by NGOs in refugee camps, will find it difficult to revert back to the 'old way' of living. 
For those who refuse inheritance, the choices will be bleak. Many will be forced to gravitate towards towns and cities in search of work, with the inevitable exploitation that accompanies severe poverty. 
"They will become susceptible to sexual abuse, because they're trying to survive," says Kiiti. "Immediately it will make them vulnerable to exploitation by aid workers, nationals and internationals. They will be quite powerless," she says. "A lot of the aid workers will be Sudanese: it's very easy to take advantage in your own community."

Conclusion

A peace deal between the government and the SPLM/A does not necessarily mean a peaceful Sudan, given the countless other rebel groups and militias which are not represented at the negotiating table, say analysts.
This will automatically prevent a large number of people returning to their homes, most notably in Darfur, where the conflict has steadily escalated despite a recent ceasefire agreement.
For areas that are peaceful, and can reasonably expect large influxes of returnees, detailed and coordinated planning is necessary to prevent large numbers of people from dying.
But whether or not that planning will take place in time remains to be seen. The Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC), the SPLM's humanitarian wing, is currently "sizing up the IDP population", "working on how to approach the matter," and in conjunction with the UN and NGOs will hold a conference on IDPs in early December in Rumbek, according to Malok. 
But humanitarian observers say not enough is being done on time. "What is worrying me very much is that the SRRC should take the lead on the IDPs, but they are not proactive enough, there is a lack of detail," Deng told IRIN.
"The political agenda is so dominant in our thinking," he added. "Everyone is focusing on signing peace, not on the IDPs."

11 November: The United Nations is drawing up plans to repatriate up to 500,000 Sudanese refugees in the event of peace deal. Ruud Lubbers, who heads the UNHCR, is in the region for talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and rebel leader John Garang. The agency said the project will be "one of the most challenging in recent times" due to "the near-total collapse of infrastructure in south Sudan". Peace talks to end decades of war are due to resume at the end of the month. More than two million people have died in the 20-year war between government forces and Mr Garang's SPLA rebels. Half a million Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries -- including more than 220,000 to Uganda -- and millions are more are internally displaced. 

The recent truce between the Khartoum government and the rebels of Darfur, in western Sudan, is still not enough to relieve the suffering of hundreds of thousands of displaced people, OCHA (Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has said. The United Nations agency estimates that between 500,000 and 600,000 people have fled from their homes in this region in the last few months, after SLA-M (Sudan Liberation Army-Movement) took up arms against government forces. Roughly 70,000 people have apparently fled to neighbouring Chad, while the majority are heading towards Kutum and Kebkabya in North Darfur. In early October the Sudanese authorities introduced restrictions on mobility, making it difficult for humanistarian organisations to reach all the displaced. According to OCHA, the aid is insufficient and what little has reached its destination has only been distributed in urban areas, while rural areas are without safe drinking water, medicines and sanitary and school equipment. The Darfur region is extremely poor and isolated, especially following the internal conflict which erupted at the start of 2003. In early September the Khartoum government and the rebels agreed on a ceasefire, which has just been extended for a further 45 days. OCHA says a clause on humanitarian aid guaranteeing access to needy people and the safety of aid workers is now required.

9 November: Police in Sudan have launched an inquiry into an accident in which 31 people were killed and 48 injured. The victims died in a stampede as they rushed to get charity donations being distributed on 8 November to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The incident happened in the city of Port Sudan, about 1,200 km northeast of the capital Khartoum. A police statement says that 15 women, 12 children and four men suffocated in the stampede. 

A delegation from the PNC (People's National Congress), led by the former president of the Sudanese parliament Hassan El Turabi, met with Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako in the archiepiscopal office at St Matthew's Cathedral in Khartoum on Saturday, religious sources said today. 
The representatives of the Islamic party comprised Christians and Muslims, including Sheik Abrahim Al-Sanossi, Abrahim Abd Haffis Dr. Bashir Adam Rahama, Mohamad Al-Amin Khalifa, Johannes Ngang and Musa Almaq Kur. 
The leader of the Islamic opposition, who was released from prison in October after two years, congratulated the Archbishop on his nomination as cardinal and for his work in promoting inter-religious dialogue in Sudan. 
El Turabi went on to highlight the need for Christians and Muslims to work continuously for peace through dialogue and coexistence, reiterating this concept at the end of the meeting in answer to a question from the correspondent of 'Al Jazira TV', who asked if the Church might be the best intermediary in dialogue with the Sudanese in the south. 
In his answer, the cardinal recalled that Sudan has left an indelible impression on Pope John Paul II, in particular for the warm welcome he received in Khartoum in 1993. He went on to explain his role as cardinal in relation to Sudan, Africa and the Universal Church, pointing out that the country's voice can reach all corners of the world. 
However, he also asked for prayer that God might help him to understand the exact role that he should play in favour of the country and of the whole church.

About 2,000 displaced southern Sudanese who have been living in Khartoum are on their way home in a convoy of barges, proceeding along the Nile river towards Juba, Bor and Adok, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
"In the past we have witnessed a migration south at this time of year for the harvest season," said Lara Melo, a WFP spokeswoman, "but this year the numbers are three times as large as normal, and they say they are going home to stay".
The displaced told WFP staff that they were moving south for a number of reasons, including the lack of employment opportunities in the capital, harassment due to the brewing of alcohol, and because of the prospects of peace in Sudan. 
Humanitarian sources told IRIN it was not the first of Sudan's internally displaced to move home because of the impending peace agreement, but it was probably the largest group to do so in such an organised manner. 
The convoy of 45 commercial and military barges departed from Kosti, about 300 km south of Khartoum, on 29 October and arrived in Malakal five days later. There the passangers were given a two-week food ration by WFP to last them for the rest of the journey.
The two thousand passengers began to arrive in Kosti as early as the beginning of September to wait for the barges, where they camped in a warehouse in poor conditions. 
Humanitarian sources told IRIN that sanitation on the barges was very limited, with little space for each person as well as the possibility of people falling overboard en route. There was only one military doctor accompanying the convoy, and no medicines were available.
Both the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army and the government have said that once a peace agreement has been signed, a key priority will be the return of Sudan's 3 million to 4 million displaced to their homes. Both sides are keen for the IDPs to return - most are from areas in southern Sudan - before a population census is held, as well as elections and a referendum on self-determination for the south. 

Peace-building efforts in Africa face considerable constraints, including inadequate funding and poor management, a conference heard on Thursday. Patrick Mazimhaka, the vice-chairman of the African Union (AU), told a key meeting on peace building in Addis Ababa that such constraints had hampered efforts to effect conflict resolution.
Mazimhaka's comments came at a seven-day conference funded by the German government as part of the UN Development Programme's peace-building strategy aimed at strengthening Africa's regional capacities and strategies for conflict prevention, peace-building and post-conflict recovery.
Sam Nyambi, the UN's country representative in Ethiopia, told delegates that better management and increasing financial support were critical to effective peace-building initiatives on the continent. "Many good programmes and projects have come to naught simply because skills in these areas were lacking or there was too much dependence on external expertise that became too expensive to maintain," he said.
Nyambi said the UNDP project aimed to promote peace-building initiatives by way of "economic development, cooperation and integration" and mobilising civil society. He also observed that regional cooperation was vital in "conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery security issues, policies and systems".
Gen Cheick Oumar Diarra, the deputy executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), commented that poor management had hampered the community's efforts to raise international funds in support of its initiatives. 
ECOWAS oversees peace and security in the region and has been at the forefront of efforts to resolve the conflict in Liberia. 
"I must confess that one of the weaknesses of ECOWAS has been lack of capacity in programme design and management," he said. "We had problems with the European Union and some other donors, primarily because we lacked the requisite capacity to utilise and manage the resources put at out disposal even though we were determined to succeed."
The AU agreed earlier this year to set up a UN-style body empowered with new competencies to enable it to tackle the continent's wars and resolve conflicts. The new Peace and Security Council will be able to intervene in conflicts and will soon be conjoined with an African peacekeeping force.

The government of Sudan and the rebel group operating in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), extended a ceasefire agreement for one month on Tuesday in the Chadian town of Abeche.
The SLM/A spokesman, Ahmad Abd al-Shafi, told IRIN that although the agreement had been renewed, key issues still had not been resolved. Nevertheless, a committee comprising representatives from the Chadian government - which is mediating peace talks between the two sides - the Sudanese government and the SLM/A would continue to meet, he said.
A ceasefire agreement between the two sides expired on 18 October.
Abd al-Shafi said the SLM/A group had a number of demands which were not being addressed by the government. Most importantly, it wanted international observers present at the peace talks and on the ground to monitor the ceasefire; the disarmament of the Arab militias in Darfur; recognition that the SLM/A is a political movement and not a group of 'bandits'; and the equitable sharing of Sudan's resources in all areas, including Darfur.
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, told IRIN that Chad was mediating the talks, and that there was no need to involve other countries. "Our position is that we don't need to internationalise the issue," he said. 
He said the Darfur conflict was "a local conflict", which had started because of drought in the region, and banditry, but that the government did accept that it had "a political dimension".
The SLM/A has accused the Chadian mediators of favouring the government, and of trying to pressurise the rebel group into signing a peace agreement.
Meanwhile, the rebel group is continuing to accuse government forces of both aerial attacks and of backing Arab militias, called Janjaweed, which are attacking and killing civilians, looting their property and pushing them off their land. Since March over over half a million people have been displaced in Darfur on top of 70,000 who have fled to neighbouring Chad.
On Monday, militias burned eight villages in the Jabal Marrah area, killing over 20 people, said Abd al-Shafi, while last week government forces bombed areas around Kulbus and Karnoi in western Darfur and the Jabal Marrah area, killing over 30 people.
The government denies backing the militias, and with no independent monitors on the ground, the alleged attacks and killings are impossible to verify. 
A military spokesman, Gen Muhammad Bashir Sulayman, reportedly admitted that some aerial attacks had taken place over the weekend in northern Darfur, but said they were targeting a different rebel group, the smaller Justice and Equality Movement. 
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also received reports of the Sudanese government bombing rebel positions close to Tini on the Chadian border on 24 October, but there were no casualties or refugee influxes reported. 
UNHCR staff have been told by local sources that the town of Kulbus, on the Chadian border in Western Darfur, was retaken by Sudanese forces two weeks ago. While there is no confirmation of this, staff have frequently observed Sudanese helicopters and aircraft patrolling the area. Chad has also beefed up its security presence along the border around Tine and Birak.

The government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have hailed recent efforts by muslim and christian leaders to promote peace and dialogue as part of efforts to end their country's 20-year civil war. 
The Sudanese deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, on Tuesday said any initiative by religious leaders to ease the tensions between Muslims and Christians was welcome. "We welcome all religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Religious leaders always have a very important role in societies such as ours," he said. 
"They should assist to ease the tensions and send a message of tolerance to their communities. The idea we have as a negotiating party is also to sensitise civil society and other groups," he added.
He was commenting on recent remarks by the general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the Rev Mvume Dandala, challenging Sudanese church leaders to gear themselves up for the task of "profiling and marketing peace" in their country. 
Dandala told a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, that the church had a crucial responsibility in monitoring peace implementation, noting that a final peace agreement between the Sudanese government and SPLM/A was expected to be signed soon.
He went on to say that the church needed to ensure that the Sudanese people were educated on the protection of human rights, which was a critical element in fostering peace in the country. "Signing the peace agreement is one thing, but the development of a harmonious society is another. Churches will have to play a leading role, as they have done in the past, to help create a harmonious society," he said. 
Samson Kwaje, the official spokesman of the SPLM/A told IRIN on Tuesday that the church was "better placed to promote peace in Sudan due to its credibility. When a priest preaches on the pulpit, nobody challenges him." 
The church in Sudan had often associated itself with the southern struggle, leading to its persecution by the government in the north, he said. "Somehow, the church has a stake in peace in Sudan, because with peace, freedom of religion would be better," he said.
Earlier this week, a leading Sudanese Islamic leader, Hasan Abdullah al-Turabi, also called for the enhancement of inter-religious dialogue in Sudan. Turabi, who is the chairman of the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC), led a delegation to visit and congratulate the newly appointed Sudanese Catholic Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako in the capital, Khartoum.
Turabi said Muslims and Christians needed to continue working for peace in the country "through dialogue and coexistence". "As a cardinal, your voice will be heard and respected in Sudan, Africa and in the world," Turabi was quoted by the Catholic news service (CISA) as saying.
Kwaje said Turabi, as an authoritative Islamic leader in Sudan, had a major role to play in promoting dialogue and peace in the country. "He [Turabi] has authority. Whatever he says can be taken seriously. Even those with a hostile attitude can believe in his pronouncements," Kwaje told IRIN. 
Kwaje added that the SPLM/A movement was already conducting awareness campaigns among its constituents in southern Sudan about progress in the peace process, and sensitising them on their roles in perpetuating peace in the country. "We ourselves are doing a lot. When talks adjourn, we go back to south Sudan and have consultative meetings with local governors, religious groups and women's groups on the peace talks, and sensitise them on their responsibilities," Kwaje added.
The Sudanese peace talks, due to resume in Kenya at the end of November, have made promising progress in the past few months. Despite the outstanding issues of wealth and power sharing, and the disputed territories of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains, both negotiating parties have committed to signing a final peace agreement before the end of the year. 

Peace talks between the government of Sudan and a Darfur rebel group have broken down indefinitely, because the government will not accept the presence of international observers at the negotiating table, according to the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) spokesman, Ahmad Abd al-Shafi. 
Committees holding talks in Abeche, Chad, had failed to reach agreement after four or five days of negotiations, he said, leading to the deadlock since 25 October. 
He said the SLM/A was demanding the presence of international observers "at least to make sure that what we are talking about is taken seriously". "We don't trust the government," he added. 
Chadian authorities had been present during the talks, but they were "friends of the government", he charged. "We need neutral observers from different countries." 
"The government refuses from the very beginning, thinking it's just a small conflict. They just want to offer us development," he said, "but the principles should be fixed before negotiations start." 
A ceasefire agreement between the two sides expired on 18 October. 
As with the larger Sudanese conflict, the root cause of the Darfur situation is unequal access to and control over resources. Nomads in Darfur, who are supported by violent Arab militias, called Janjawid, have pitted themselves against local farming communities, which are being pushed off their land towards towns and cities. 
The government has denied backing the militias but has committed itself to controlling them. 
The UN estimates that over 500,000 people have been displaced by the militias since February, in addition to the 200,000 displaced in southern Darfur between 1998 and 2001, and 70,000 who have fled to neighbouring Chad. Hundreds have also been killed. 
The SLM is demanding a secular state in Darfur, equitable sharing of wealth and power for the region, and recognition for Darfur's non-Arab ethnic groups, who are being targeted by militia attacks. "Darfur is defined as an Arab state, but Sudan is for all Sudanese," Abd al-Shafi said. "The question of identity is very important." 
In the absence of any agreement on these issues, the SLM/A would continue to fight and defend its people, he added. On Wednesday seven villages were burned to the ground by militias in southern Jabal Marrah, he said, where clashes with Arab militias were occurring every day. 
Speaking to journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios said the Darfur conflict was the worst in the region since independence. He said there had been 7,000 casualties since February, 300 villages had been burned to the ground and 10 percent of the population displaced. 
"This is very serious. We don't want to have an end to a war and a new war starting in the west," he said. "We're pretty concerned that as we're settling one dispute, we're going to begin another one."
Natsios added that USAID looked forward to starting reconstruction projects in areas of Sudan which had sustained long-term conflict, including Darfur, the Red Sea State and areas of the south. But if fighting continued, or there was no overall peace agreement, only "spot reconstruction" would take place. "We're not going to invest in rebuilding buildings just so they can get blown up," he said. "We cannot begin our reconstruction programme in Sudan unless there is peace." 
USAID has set aside US $200 million for Sudan for next year, a $40 million increase on last year's budget specifically for reconstruction and development projects. 

A southern militia group operating in Upper Nile, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-United (SPLM/A-U), officially rejoined the larger Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Friday.
A declaration signed by Dr Lam Akol, the chairman of the SPLM/A-U, and Salva Kiir, the chief of general staff of the SPLM/A, agreed to an immediate merger of the two forces under the SPLM/A name, stating that "a united stand is the only sure way to bring the war to a just and speedy end".
It said the reunited forces recognised the peace process "as the only viable and most credible forum for the resolution of the conflict in Sudan", and were committed to the continuation of the south-south dialogue to bring reconciliation to southerners.
Three technical committees will be formed to effect the merger of the military forces, political structures, and humanitarian wings, which will make recommendations to the two leaders within a month.
After the signing of the agreement in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Lam Akol said it was an "historic day" and that time had healed the differences between the two groups. "We want to look forward, not to be captured by the past," he said. "We are determined to forgive each other and to go forward in great strides of unity."
Lam Akol was a senior member of the SPLM/A before breaking away with other commanders, including Dr Riek Machar, in a rebellion that split the movement in 1991. He broke with Riek in 1995, signed the Fashoda Agreement with the government in 1997 and served as its transport minister until mid-2002. 
After a falling out with the government, he resigned from the ruling party, and became a key member of the newly-formed opposition Justice Party in August 2002. 
Last week he was quoted as saying the government was denying him access to his forces in Upper Nile, something which had "hammered the last nail in the coffin of the Fashoda agreement".
Salva Kiir told reporters in Nairobi that the SPLM/A was currently making contact with "many" other southern militias in its quest for "peace and unity" in Sudan. "The rest of the armed groups will also be brought on board," he said. He added that the SPLM/A was in contact with them "on a daily basis", and that without their support "there will be not meaningful peace". 
Regional analysts estimate that there are about 35 other militia groups in Sudan, the SPLM/A-U being one of the more important ones
Riek Machar, the leader of the another key militia, the Sudan People's Democratic Front, merged with the SPLM/A in January 2002.
It is not clear what position Lam Akol will hold within the SPLM, or whether he will take part in peace negotiations with the government, which will resume at the end of November. 

A team mandated to monitor the cessation of hostilities accord between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is resuming work, having been "grounded" since August. 
Two Eritrean members of the Verification and Monitoring Team (VMT) were denied visas by the government of Sudan, which cited "security problems" along the Eritrean-Sudanese border, after which the Council of Ministers of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - which is facilitating the peace process - had refused to authorise any missions, VMT staff told IRIN.
The VMT, which was mandated in February, has been dogged by problems ever since its inception due to a lack of funding and manpower, burdensome bureaucratic and diplomatic processes, and four changes of leadership. 
Its chief of staff, Stuart McGhie, told IRIN the team had "to all intents and purposes" only started work last month. "This mission is characterised by diplomacy rather than any mission operation, so just like the peace process, everything takes a long time to happen," he said.
Dr Domenico Polloni, the deputy head of mission at the Italian embassy in Nairobi, and an observer at the peace talks, said the apparent "disappointing" performance of the VMT had resulted from the fact that both sides needed to "warm up" to the team, as well as to the cessation of hostilities agreement. 
He added that delays had occurred as a result of disagreements between the government and the SPLM/A on the tasking of the VMT, then on its composition, and finally they had had to "figure out" what the team would actually do. 
Polloni added that Italy had not withheld funding because of the difficulties, but observers say other donors were reluctant to invest until the many diplomatic problems had been ironed out.
VMT staff told IRIN that the team's mandate was now "developing all the time" expanding away from pure investigative work into mapping, liaison work with commanders, monitoring troop movements and locations, building confidence among government troops as well as the SPLA and militia groups, and informing them of their responsibilities under the cessation of hostilities agreement. 
The team - which currently consists of 15 members - was now focusing on the creation of a field base by next month around Ler in western Upper Nile, McGhie told IRIN, after which a liaison office would be established in Malakal. At that stage, patrols would start operating from the field bases and the VMT would build up its manpower from two monitoring teams (with four people in each) to four.
A number of VMT investigations into ceasefire violations are also pending, some of which have been left unfinished for several months. But a Channel of Communications Committee, to which all violations have to be communicated, has not met since July. 
Polloni told IRIN that "hardly any" new violations had been reported recently, showing that the situation on the ground had improved considerably. Observers note, however, that the composition of the communications committee has been causing problems, as members are also involved in Sudanese peace talks -including the chief mediator, Gen Lazarus Sumbeiywo - leaving them little time to perform both tasks.

The government of Sudan has completed its ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty six years after signing it, thereby committing itself to destroying all stockpiled antipersonnel mines within four years and clearing all mined areas in the country within 10 years. 
The ban will come into force on 1 April 2004, and will commit Sudan to destroying its stocks by 1 April 2008, to demining all affected areas by 1 April 2014 and to reporting to the UN Secretary-General on measures taken to implement the treaty in a year's time. 
The move follows the footsteps of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which signed a parallel Deed of Commitment to ban landmines in 2001, committing itself to a "total ban" on landmines, including a "complete prohibition" on the use, production, stockpiling, or transfer of mines, as well as an undertaking to destroy any in its possession. 
Welcoming the decision, Rae McGrath, the country representative of Land Mine Action, told IRIN it was time for the international community to assist Sudan, now that the political will was there to change the status quo. 
"No country can take on the task without financial and technical assistance from the international community," he said. "It is quite clear that mines in Sudan have come from the former Soviet Union, China and European countries such as Italy and Belgium, and that they have profited from it. There is a responsibility to support the process so that peace now means peace," he said. 
While the landmine situation in Sudan has not been properly surveyed, McGrath said Sudan undoubtedly had a "major problem". Any areas of long-term conflict, or towns that had been under siege were likely to have landmines, he added. 
Despite the international commitments made by the government and the SPLM/A, both sides have repeatedly accused each other of continuing to use mines. 
A UN Mine Action Service official reported that government garrisons evacuated under the terms of the Nuba Mountains ceasefire agreement were ringed by antipersonnel mines. Other incidents of mine-laying were also reported - but not confirmed - around the southern oil fields of Bentiu, particularly around Ler, in western Upper Nile, as well as Yuai, Waat, and Akobo in Upper Nile, according to the Landmine Monitor Report 2003, compiled by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). 
On many occasions in recent years the government had stated that it did not produce, import, or export antipersonnel mines, and that it had no stockpile, according to the report. But a fax received from the Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs in July 2003 stated that it had "very few mines in storage, and the ones in storage are used for practice only", which was at odds with previous statements, it said. 
Government-backed militia groups, who may not feel "bound" by international legal obligations, have repeatedly been accused of using mines. 
The government has also accused the SPLA of using mines in Eastern Equatoria, as well as in other areas. 
In March 2003 Nhial Deng, the chairman of the SPLM Commission for External Relations, Information and Humanitarian Affairs, conceded that "there may have been limited mine use by the SPLA", but that it had not found anyone actually using mines. 
Deng reported that the SPLA leadership was "too preoccupied with peace talks" to have fully discussed the mine issue with its members, and said incidents of mine use were due to a lack of information among junior officers. 
But "it also appears that senior officers are confused about or unaware of restriction on mine use," says the Landmine Monitor Report. 
Nevertheless, mine clearance remains an important issue for a peaceful Sudan, according to both sides. "One of the first issues that needs to feature prominently in the pre-interim period is the landmine issue," Deng stated. "Mines are still causing problems despite the ceasefire. If peace returns and people begin to move and cultivate, mines will inevitably become more of a problem," he said. 
An SPLM/A workshop held in Kapoeta county at the end of last month made a series of recommendations on how to implement the landmine ban, including giving direct orders to commanders and soldiers not to use mines under any circumstances; introducing a mine-ban curriculum in training for the SPLM; and introducing laws to ban mines and penal sanctions for those who disobey. 
"In general, a change of attitude regarding the use of landmines needs to be fostered," said a summary of the recommendations. "Signing the Deed of Commitment is not enough if there is no political will, and without the support of the people, nothing can be done," it said. 
In the Nuba mountains, where mine clearance has begun, progress has been slow due to mistrust on both sides. As of mid-2003, both the government and the SPLM/A had only provided information on the boundaries of minefields and mined routes, without any maps, detailed information or numbers of landmines, the ICBL reported. 
According to Commander Abd al-Aziz Adam al-Hulw, the SPLA governor of the region, the SPLA has only agreed to "very limited" demining of roads in the region, because it continues to fear a breakdown of the ceasefire.

The UN will do its utmost to support the rebuilding of Sudan once a peace deal has been signed, said Mohamed Sahnoun, the special adviser to the UN Secretary-General, on Friday.
"The United Nations will do everything possible to garner maximum international support for the implementation of a future peace accord and the reconstruction of the country," Sahnoun told delegates at 10th regional summit of the Inter-Government Authority on Development (IGAD being held in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
Sahnoun said that during meetings held in Oslo in January and in The Hague in April, donors had shown a "commendable readiness to meet the future Sudanese peace agreement with critically needed resources".
At the IGAD conference, Norwegian Minister for International Development Hilde Frafjord Johnson pledged an undisclosed sum of money for the implementation of Sudan's truce. "Plans are already in place to fund the implementation of a peace deal in Sudan," she said. "After the signing of the peace deal, Oslo will hold a donors' conference on Sudan with a view to raising funds to facilitate its implementation."
But Frafjord Johnson added that it was up to the countries of the region to work towards a lasting peace in Sudan, as well as in other IGAD member countries. She singled out northern Uganda as one of the areas needing urgent attention. "Uganda is taking over the IGAD leadership at a crucial point, with the conflict in the northern region dragging on, which
requires peaceful resolution," she said. "We urge President Museveni to give in to dialogue without any conditions."

Northern Sudan is to receive over US $20.7 million for HIV/AIDS related activities from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, while a funding proposal for the south has been rejected for the second time.
The latest proposal for the south was submitted in May 2003 by  the southern sector of the Country Coordinating Mechanism, a consortium of agencies working in the region.
A previous HIV/AIDS proposal was rejected in 2002, while over US $18 million was approved by the Global Fund last January - but not yet disbursed - for activities related to tuberculosis and malaria in southern Sudan.
The US $20.781 for northern Sudan is to be disbursed over five years, on top of US $14.2 million for malaria.
A spokesman for the Global Fund, Tim Clark, told IRIN that reasons for the rejection would not be made public, but the applicants themselves would be informed in detail. "We do all we can to encourage reapplication and hope that it will be successful," he said. He added that the fund did not have the capacity or the staff to give technical advice to applicants.
"It is unquestionably an almost unique opportunity to stop the epidemic before its starts in earnest," commented Ben Parker, spokesman for the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan. "We hope that other funding can be mobilised in time to seize the opportunity."
The adult prevalence rate of HIV infection for the whole country is estimated at 2.6 percent, but there are regional variations with higher prevalence rates in the southern and eastern states, Khartoum State and the White Nile State, according to the Global Fund.
Once a peace deal has been signed and mobility increases, observers fear that prevalence rates will rise dramatically, especially as people return from refugee camps in Kenya (home to almost 60,000), Uganda (over 223,000), Ethiopia (over 88,000), and many of Sudan's 3 million to 4 million internally displaced move home.
Efforts to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Sudan have so far been characterised by denial and misconceptions, says the Global Fund on its website. While the political commitment and environment have improved a lot in the last two years, until recently the mistaken belief was that Sudan was "a conservative country and, as such, it was naturally protected from the epidemic".
The next funding applications are to come up for approval by the Global Fund in June 2004. 
To access IRIN's webspecial on HIV/AIDS in southern Sudan click on the following:
http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/PNsudan/default.asp

The annual Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) conference, involving six heads of state from East Africa, opened on Friday with universal praise for Sudan’s new peace efforts, and hopes expressed that Somalia will soon follow suite. 
Heads of state from Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Mozambique (representing the African Union) arrived in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, for the conference chaired this year by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. 
Also present was the UN special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mohamed Sahnoun, who, after praising Sudan for its "encouraging progress", warned that the UN Security Council had "expressed its concern about the persistent cycle of violence in Somalia and the continued flow of weapons and ammunition supplies". 
He said the Security Council had decided to re-establish a Panel of Experts to investigate suspected violations of the UN arms embargo on Somalia. 
In his opening remarks, Museveni appealed to the warring factions in Somalia to realise that their best interests lay in cooperation, "as the factions in Sudan have done".
"The problem is they do not have the glasses to see that their interests lie in trade, not through fighting," he said. 
On Thursday, at a news conference at the Sudanese embassy in Kampala, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Isma'il said peace in Sudan had to be seen "in the context of peace in the whole region, in which we all must participate". "There should be settlements in northern Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The Sudan settlement cannot hold in isolation," he added. 

The Sudanese government on Thursday said it is committed to finding a peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) by the end of the year, contrary to media reports. 
Following a meeting on Wednesday with the government and the SPLM/A in Naivasha, Kenya, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that both sides had committed themselves to signing a peace deal by the end of the year. 
Neither SPLM/A Chairman John Garang nor Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha mentioned any date during the press conference, but the Sudanese presidential peace adviser, Dr Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, reportedly said afterwards that it was "impossible to dictate" a deadline for reaching a peace deal to end two decades of civil war. 
On Thursday, a statement from the Sudanese embassy said: "The date proposed by Secretary Powell for the conclusion of a peace deal was made in consultation with the two parties and reflects a realistic goal." 
"The government of the Sudan expresses its commitment to redouble its efforts to reach a fair and sustainable peace deal before that date," it continued. Contrary to media reports, "no suggestion was made by the peace adviser to indicate that the government views the proposal as a dictation on its will", it added. 

Conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, has displaced over half a million people since March, in addition to 70,000 who have fled across the border to eastern Chad, according to the UN. 
Figures remain uncertain due to access constraints and poor road conditions, but the latest estimates document at least 300,000 IDPs in northern Darfur, and 126,000 in the western state. In southern Darfur 76,000 have been displaced this year, on top of 200,000 who fled north from Bahr el Ghazal between 1988 and 2001. 
As with the larger Sudanese conflict, the root cause of the Darfur situation is unequal access to and control over resources. 
Nomads in Darfur, who are supported by violent Arab militias, have pitted themselves against local farming communities, who are being pushed off their land towards towns and cities. Hundreds of villages have been burned to the ground by the militias - in northern Darfur at least 200 - and thousands killed, according to Daniel Christensen, the UN Area Coordinator for western Sudan. Still more have died of malnutrition and disease as a result of being displaced. 
Official talks between the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) rebel group operating in the region and the government are reportedly scheduled to start at the weekend in Abeche, Chad, to discuss the 45-day ceasefire which came into effect on 6 September. The SLM/A spokesman, Ahmad Abd al-Shafi, told IRIN that no decisions had been made yet on whether to renew the expired agreement. 
He said the government - which has denied backing the militias but has said it will bring them under control - had continued to attack civilians in Darfur during the last ceasefire. "There is no chance of another ceasefire. I don't think so. The government insists on fighting," Abd al-Shafi said. 
Meanwhile the government and the SPLM are negotiating a peace agreement in Naivasha, Kenya, and have committed themselves to signing a deal before the end of 2003 which will exclude smaller rebel groups with grievances like the SLM/A. 
John Prendergast, a Sudan analyst and the Africa programme co-director of the International Crisis Group, told IRIN it was a mistake to view the war in Sudan as simply between north and south. He said an eventual peace deal between the government and the SPLM/A could spark further instability in both Darfur and eastern Sudan, if people felt left out of the peace process. 
"The potential is that westerners and easterners may feel so excluded, that the only way to join the table is to pick up a gun," he said. 
If, however, when the SPLM/A was part of the government, it worked to address the marginalisation in Darfur and other areas it could prevent further bloodshed. "It depends on how the parties play it," said Prendergast, emphasising that all of Sudan's regions had to benefit from peace dividends. 

The Sudanese government on Thursday said it is committed to finding a peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) by the end of the year, contrary to media reports.
Following a meeting on Wednesday with the government and the SPLM/A in Naivasha, Kenya, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that both sides had committed themselves to signing a peace deal by the end of the year. 
Neither SPLM/A Chairman John Garang nor Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha mentioned any date during the press conference, but the Sudanese presidential peace adviser, Dr Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, reportedly said afterwards that it was "impossible to dictate" a deadline for reaching a peace deal to end two decades of civil war. 
On Thursday, a statement from the Sudanese embassy said: "The date proposed by Secretary Powell for the conclusion of a peace deal was made in consultation with the two parties and reflects a realistic goal." 
"The government of the Sudan expresses its commitment to redouble its efforts to reach a fair and sustainable peace deal before that date," it continued. Contrary to media reports, "no suggestion was made by the peace adviser to indicate that the government views the proposal as a dictation on its will", it added.

A team mandated to monitor the cessation of hostilities accord between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is resuming work, having been "grounded" since August. 
Two Eritrean members of the Verification and Monitoring Team (VMT) were denied visas by the government of Sudan, which cited "security problems" along the Eritrean-Sudanese border, after which the Council of Ministers of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - which is facilitating the peace process - had refused to authorise any missions, VMT staff told IRIN.
The VMT, which was mandated in February, has been dogged by problems ever since its inception due to a lack of funding and manpower, burdensome bureaucratic and diplomatic processes, and four changes of leadership. 
Its chief of staff, Stuart McGhie, told IRIN the team had "to all intents and purposes" only started work last month. "This mission is characterised by diplomacy rather than any mission operation, so just like the peace process, everything takes a long time to happen," he said.
Dr Domenico Polloni, the deputy head of mission at the Italian embassy in Nairobi, and an observer at the peace talks, said the apparent "disappointing" performance of the VMT had resulted from the fact that both sides needed to "warm up" to the team, as well as to the cessation of hostilities agreement. 
He added that delays had occurred as a result of disagreements between the government and the SPLM/A on the tasking of the VMT, then on its composition, and finally they had had to "figure out" what the team would actually do. 
Polloni added that Italy had not withheld funding because of the difficulties, but observers say other donors were reluctant to invest until the many diplomatic problems had been ironed out.
VMT staff told IRIN that the team's mandate was now "developing all the time" expanding away from pure investigative work into mapping, liaison work with commanders, monitoring troop movements and locations, building confidence among government troops as well as the SPLA and militia groups, and informing them of their responsibilities under the cessation of hostilities agreement. 
The team - which currently consists of 15 members - was now focusing on the creation of a field base by next month around Ler in western Upper Nile, McGhie told IRIN, after which a liaison office would be established in Malakal. At that stage, patrols would start operating from the field bases and the VMT would build up its manpower from two monitoring teams (with four people in each) to four.
A number of VMT investigations into ceasefire violations are also pending, some of which have been left unfinished for several months. But a Channel of Communications Committee, to which all violations have to be communicated, has not met since July. 
Polloni told IRIN that "hardly any" new violations had been reported recently, showing that the situation on the ground had improved considerably. Observers note, however, that the composition of the communications committee has been causing problems, as members are also involved in Sudanese peace talks -including the chief mediator, Gen Lazarus Sumbeiywo - leaving them little time to perform both tasks.

Both the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have committed themselves to signing a comprehensive peace deal by the end of the year, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters in Naivasha, Kenya.
Having spent over an hour in discussions with the two sides, Powell said, "Based on what I have heard today, I believe that a final agreement is within the grasp of the parties". He said the "way is now open to finding a comprehensive solution", but that there was "still a bit more to be done". 
"Excellent progress" had been made on the issue of wealth sharing, while power sharing could also be "dealt with in the near future," he said. But the contested areas of Abyei, southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains would "take most work". 
Deep-rooted differences of opinion exist on the status of the three areas - currently under a divided control - in a future Sudan. 
The SPLM/A wants southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains, to have the right to self-determination, with internationally monitored referenda before the end of the six-year interim period to decide whether they belong to northern or southern Sudan. 
For the oil-rich area of Abyei, currently part of Western Kordofan, the movement has asked that a presidential order be issued restoring it to the southern state of Bahr al-Ghazal. 
But the government is determined to hold on to the three regions.
Powell said that once a final agreement had been signed, both the government and the SPLM/A would be invited to the White House to endorse it and enable President George W. Bush "to commit the US to assisting in the implementation of an agreement". He added that the US would remain just as committed to implementation as it was to the ongoing peace process.
"We are committed and focused and will remain engaged until peace is achieved," said Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha. "The issues are there and it's not an easy exercise to get them resolved. But with determination and commitment to our people we are going to overcome the difficulties."
SPLM/A Chairman John Garang said: "We are committed to the peace process, we know that our people need peace." 
He added that the parties would address the remaining issues, "difficult as they are". He said Powell had come to "nudge" both sides, and that the meeting had brought encouragement and hope which was "very valuable".
"We must find a solution. This is a moment of opportunity that must not be lost," added Powell.

Women have a one-in-30 chance of dying in childbirth in northern Sudan, with higher rates in areas of the south, according to the UN.
While data was available for the north, it was nonexistent in the south due to the absence of a government there to collect information centrally, Dr Michaleen Richer of the UN Children's Fund told IRIN. Some localised studies had been done, producing death rates of between 400 and 800 deaths per 100,000 births, she said, but they had been small-scale, done on an ad hoc basis, and were therefore not representative. 
In Sweden, reckoned to have one of the best health-care systems in the world, only two out of every 100,000 births result in death.
One of the main ways of reducing maternal mortality was the presence of skilled medical personnel at births, who were often absent in Sudan, said Richer. 
The ability to refer complications to hospitals or medical facilities was also key to preventing deaths, she said. But with only 12 hospitals in southern Sudan and an almost total absence of roads or vehicles to access them, getting there was impossible.
A World Bank survey shows that between 1990 and 1999, an average of only 57 percent of births were attended each year in northern Sudan, with no improvements in attendance over the course of the decade. In the south, just 6 percent were attended by either a doctor or mid-wife. 
Afghanistan and Sierra Leone have the worst maternal death rates in the world with a one-in-six chance of death during childbirth, according to the UN. Angola, Malawi, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda follow close behind. 
Women in sub-Saharan Africa are 175 times more likely to die in childbirth than women in developing countries, according to the UN.

Darfur rebels keen to extend ceasefire

The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) rebel group operating in Darfur, western Sudan, says it is keen to extend a ceasefire agreement with the Sudanese government.
Speaking from the Jebel Mara area, the SLM/A spokesman Ahmed Abdelshafi told IRIN his group wanted to extend the agreement, due to expire next Thursday, because of the humanitarian needs in Darfur and the suffering of its people. 
He added that the SLM/A leadership and Darfur elders had been holding discussions for the last three days to "settle the decision". People were arriving from all over Darfur to take part in the talks, which would probably go on for a further two days. 
He said Arab militia attacks were still continuing on a grand scale. On Thursday, he said, they had attacked three villages in south Jebel Mara, burning them to the ground and killing 30 people. "No-one can control them [the militias]," he said.
With no international monitors on the ground, there is no independent confirmation of the attacks. 
The SLA took up arms against the government in March 2003 to fight against "marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation," in Darfur. In early September a ceasefire accord was signed in Chad, but since August about 300,000 people have been displaced in the region, and an unknown number killed in militia attacks, which have systematically forced local farmers off their land. The government, which has denied backing and arming the militias, has committed itself to controlling them. 

Peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) taking place in Naivasha Kenya have "hit a rock", according to Malik Agar Eyre, SPLM commander and Governor of Southern Blue Nile region.
He said the atmosphere remained "cordial and friendly" but there was a deadlock in all three committees discussing the pending issues of power sharing, wealth sharing and the contested areas of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains. 
"To say we are confident is too much," he told IRIN. "We are cautiously optimistic."
The SPLM Chairman, John Garang, and the Sudanese Vice-President, Ali Osman Taha, were expected to start face-to-face negotiations on Saturday, he said, having held an opening ceremony in Naivasha on Friday morning. 
At the opening, Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka urged the parties to resolve their differences and reminded them that "the world was watching". He added it was likely that US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, would visit Kenya next week to encourage the parties, or to witness the signing of an agreement. 

The release of Dr Hassan al-Turabi, a key Islamist leader of the Sudanese opposition, is due to electoral confidence at home and not outside pressure, according to John Prendergast of the advocacy organisation, International Crisis Group (ICG). 
"It demonstrates the government's level of confidence in its future role in Sudan, that the principal threats it perceived itself to face in the political landscape have diminished," said Prendergast, ICG's co-director for Africa.
Turabi, who was freed on Monday along with other detainees, said his release was ordered because of a combination of national and international pressure for greater political freedoms and peace in Sudan. But the government's political adviser, Dr Qutbi Mahdi, issued a swift denial saying the decision was not made because of any "pressure", rather because there was "no reason to continue detaining him".
Prendergast told IRIN the US administration had not pushed for Turabi's release. The decision was an "internal calculation", he stated. 
He added that the government was "very confident" it would remain in power if elections were held early within the six-year interim period, following the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). "Because of its delivery of a peace deal and oil revenues, there's a confidence in its electoral prospects," he said.
The government would now systematically try to "lure" the opposition parties - Turabi's Popular National Congress (PNC), as well as the Ummah and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - into an alliance, Prendergast said. 
Since his release, Turabi has urged the government to include opposition parties in any alliance formed with the SPLM/A. 
Prendergast said Turabi's party, which has about five percent hardline support among the electorate, might choose to campaign on specific issues that are relevant to the peace process, such as the issue of Sharia in the capital, or the territorial integrity of Sudan.
But, he added that the PNC would have its "finger in the wind", assessing which way it was blowing and "how to use it to its advantage". 
Turabi backed the 1989 coup that brought President Omar al-Bashir to power, but was ousted from key political positions in 1999 after a power struggle. He was then arrested in February 2001 - but never brought to trial - and charged with offences related to "crimes against the state". 
The presidential decree leading to his release reportedly allows the PNC to reopen its headquarters and to publish its newspaper.

The Sudanese vice-President Ali Osman Taha arrived today in Nairobi to attend peace talks with the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) which, in the next few hours, should depart for Naivasha (90km north west of the Kenyan capital). “We are glad that we are once again in Nairobi to resume negotiations which we hope are the last”, Taha said to the press as he arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport. The Sudanese vice-President specified that Khartoum is determined to entirely resolve, during this new phase of talks, pending issues thus to reach “global and definitive regulation” as soon as possible. The meeting between Osman Taha and John Garang, leader of the SPLA, expected to take place this evening in Nairobi, was to be held yesterday, but due to unknown reasons, it was postponed for at least 24 hours. The two will have to deal with several pending issues: power and wealth sharing and the status of Khartoum and the three marginalised areas of Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, claimed by both sides. After nearly a month of ‘preliminary negotiations’, a first decisive signal that the twenty-year conflict in Southern Sudan is close to the end, came from an agreement signed between the parties last 25 September. The two signed a key security deal that cleared a major stumbling block in efforts to end the war, which Taha hailed upon his return to Khartoum as a basis for ''lasting peace.'' The security deal provides for two separate armies with the creation of integrated units comprising government and troops of the SPLA during a six-year transition period. At the end of this, southerners will have the right to a referendum on secession. Since 1983, a conflict has been fought in the southern regions for major autonomy in the south of Sudan. It is calculated that more than 2 million people have died in the conflict, mainly through war-induced famine and disease

The high-profile release of a number of Sudan's political prisoners this week is a welcome move, but prolonged incommunicado detention for political reasons continues in the Darfur region of western Sudan, says rights group Amnesty International (AI). 
It said Sudan must do more to prove its commitment to human rights by abolishing Article 31 of its National Security Forces Act, which allows detention for up to nine months without charge or judicial review. In Darfur a number of community leaders of the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit ethnic groups have been detained without charge - 11 known to AI - on suspicion of supporting the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army rebel group. 
There have also been numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment in Darfur made by the UK-based Sudan Organisation Against Torture.
The release of Dr Hassan al-Turabi, Islamist leader of the Popular National Congress and other party members including Yusuf Saleh Libis, was widely welcomed by observers this week. 
Turabi was arrested in February 2001 after a power struggle with President Umar al-Bashir. He was charged with offences related to "crimes against the state", and never brought to trial. 
"According to international human rights law, anyone detained must have access to relatives, lawyers and medical care if needs, and must be promptly charged with a recognisable criminal offence or else released," Ai pointed out. It called for a registry of persons detained by the security forces in Sudan.
In August, Bashir committed himself to releasing all political detainees as part of peace talks with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). On Tuesday, the office of the president reportedly denied that Turabi's release was due to international pressure, saying it came about because there was no reason to continue detaining him.

A rapid assessment conducted around the town of Mukjar in west Darfur found that almost 100 children under five years of age were severely malnourished, according to the NGO Medair.
Among some 900 children who were surveyed earlier this month, a further 502 were either moderately or mildly malnourished, the NGO reported.
In August at least 150 people were killed, and 225 injured, during a series of militia attacks in Wadi Sali province. Most of the displaced lost all their possession and livestock, as 89 villages were burned to the ground by Arab militas known as the Janjaweed. Almost 32,000 people fled to Mukjar, while the populations of 24 villages, who remain unaccounted for, are believed to have fled to neighbouring Chad.
The current death rate among the population around Mukjar was averaging seven per day, Medair reported. Three quarters were under five. 
With no health facilities in the town, general health is continuing to deteriorate, principally due to malaria, diarrhoea, chest infections and eye diseases.
People were defecating around their living spaces, due to a lack of latrines in the area and the fear of going too far away because of possible militia attacks, the NGO reported. Out of nine hand pumps in the area, only two were working, forcing people to dig for water in a local river bed.
The UN believes that about 75,000 people from Darfur are scattered inside Chad along the border, while a further 300,000 people within Darfur have been displaced by attacks since August.

Deep-rooted differences on the future status of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains are emerging at peace talks taking place in Naivasha, Kenya.
Representatives from the government of Sudan and the three areas exchanged position papers on the three areas last week, Malik Agar Eyre, SPLM commander and Governor of Southern Blue Nile region told IRIN.
He said the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was expecting an "elaborated" response from the government delegation, which would address the detailed rebel demands.
"It would be unfair to say progress has been made, and it would be unfair to say that no progress has been made," said Eyre. Both sides were "leveling the ground" by stating their positions and trying to reach a consensus on minor issues before the arrival of the Sudanese Vice-President, Ali Osman Taha and the Chairman of the SPLM/A, John Garang, on 16 October.
For Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains, the SPLM/A was demanding the right to self-determination, he said. This meant holding internationally monitored referenda in each region before the end of the six year interim period - following the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement - to decide whether they would belong to northern or southern Sudan.
During the interim period, the SPLM/A was demanding that the two areas be "anchored" under rebel control, but awarded a "special status" and a great deal of autonomy in a decentralised government. Both areas should be allowed their own state constitution, judiciary, legislative and executive powers, security organs, police, and civil service, he said. 
A land commission should be set up to resolve land disputes, order restitution of grabbed land and award compensation, he added. "Special resources" should also be allocated to both regions to provide reconstruction and rehabilitation in war-affected areas, and to ensure that services in the areas were "on the same footing" with all other regions.
Abyei, currently part of western Kordofan, should be restored to the southern state of Bahr el Ghazal by a presidential order, he said. If this were not possible then a referendum should also be held to decide whether it belonged to the north or the south.
Under the colonial borders drawn up in 1956, all three areas found themselves under the control of northern-dominated administrations. Regularly attacked by northern militias, denied humanitarian aid, and treated effectively as "second-class citizens" by the ruling classes they have experienced systematic marginalisation and discrimination, according to political analysts. 
The SPLM/A currently controls Kurmuk and Yabus counties in Southern Blue Nile, with a population of about 500,000, and a further 700,000-800,000 in the Nuba mountains, according to Eyre. In Abyei county, the movement has control over about 32,000 people.
He said that after a week of discussions, the government response to the SPLM/A demands had failed to recognise the political dimension to the conflict, by insisting on keeping the areas as part of northern Sudan. The government delegation had talked about "accommodating" the SPLM/A by keeping the three areas as part of the north, while injecting money into them to combat "underdevelopment and neglect", he said. 
But the SPLM/A was prepared to stay as long as it was "achieving something", he told IRIN. Inevitably, compromises would have to be made on both sides. "We are expecting to get whatever we can live with, not necessarily whatever we want," he noted.

The United Nations Security Council yesterday called on UN Secretary General for the projection of a peace mission in Sudan, to be deployed in view of a possible accord between the government of Khartoum and rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army). The 15 Council members asked the top UN representative to “begin preparatory work” to evaluate the implementation of the UN peace plan, in light of the recent progress in the peace talks underway in Kenya between Khartoum and the rebels of South Sudan, in conflict for twenty years. According to diplomatic sources – cited by Reuters – the peace mission in Sudan should include thousands of UN peacekeepers and hundreds of military observers. Last Tuesday in Naivasha (Kenya), the Islamic government of Khartoum and rebels of South Sudan – a predominantly animist and Christian area – resumed negotiations in a move to reach a definitive accord. On September 24 they reached an important accord on the composition of the armed forces to guarantee security in the southern zones of the nation. The UN is currently conducting its most ample mission in Liberia, with 15-thousand men, while that in the Democratic Republic of Congo should count up to 11-thousand men.

Extremely poor levels of hygiene in Sudan, coupled with a lack of health care facilities, medicines and trained personnel, are contributing to widespread preventable blindness. All the leading causes of preventable blindness, such as trachoma, river blindness, and cataracts co-exist in Sudan, Dr Serge Resnikoff, Coordinator of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Prevention of Blindness and Deafness programme, told IRIN. An estimated 3.5 million people in Sudan have trachoma, he said, which is caused by a bacteria that spreads from a person's eye or nose discharges through the common housefly or human contact. A chronic eye infection results, scarring the eyelids and causing damage to the eyeball - requiring surgery - leading to blindness if left untreated. 
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37153]

Amid signs that a ceasefire in the Darfur region of western Sudan may be "ending prematurely", tens of thousands of refugees who have fled to eastern Chad have to be transferred to "new, safer locations", the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said. 
UNHCR staff are currently looking for safe sites where water will be available once the dry season starts next month. A number of places have been suggested by local authorities, but are either too close to the border or without a ready supply of water, the agency said in a statement on Thursday. In the meantime, it is looking for sites to set up communal kitchens. 
A 45-day ceasefire agreement signed by the government and rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) in Darfur became effective on 6 September, but both sides have since accused each other of breaching the truce. 
Around Birak and Adre, where between 12,000 and 15,000 refugees are camped, several cross-border militia raids have been reported, reaching as far as 40 km from the border. "The UNHCR team was told that refugees with livestock were particularly at risk as raiders were on the lookout for animals, among other property," the statement said. 
Chadian authorities have deployed military personnel to protect the refugees, some of whom have said they would feel safer with an increased military presence in the area, rather than being moved further inland, UNHCR reported. 
While no aerial bombardments have been reported by the refugees since mid-September, Arab militias known as 'Janjaweed' are reportedly continuing to burn villages to the ground in Darfur, killing inhabitants and pushing villagers towards town centres. 
There have also been reports of landmine incidents along the border area around Iribe, west of Tine, in which at least two children were injured, UNHCR said. 
Meanwhile, the SLM/A rebel group has been spotted "stocking up on supplies" in the Chadian border town of Tine, which hosts about 28,000 refugees, UNHCR reported. 
Poor security has prevented UNHCR from reaching some of the refugees, whose precise number is unknown but is estimated at around 75,000. 
Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37137]

The rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) accepted with interest the proposal of a political alliance with the ruling National Congress party. As reported by a Khartoum newspaper, the opening toward the SPLA came directly from Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir, while peace talks resumed in Kenya to end twenty years of civil war. According to the ‘al-Ayam’ independent newspaper, a SPLA delegate, Deng Alor, appreciated the invitation made Wednesday by the Head of State to form a ‘common court’ on the political front, underlining however that the hypothesis of a partnership still needs to be discussed. The initiative, whether or not it is implemented, appears to confirm the current political atmosphere between the sides. On September 24 the Islamic government of Khartoum and rebels of South Sudan, a predominantly animist and Christian area, finally reached an accord on the composition of the armed forces that will have to guarantee security in the southern zones of the nation. The negotiations were then suspended for a few weeks and resumed Tuesday.

The Cairo-based leader of the opposition Ummah party in Sudan, Sadiq al-Mahdi, has said that the Sudanese peace process must involve parties other than the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
For an agreement "to become a lasting feature and to enjoy popular and international support it has to go beyond the two parties involved," he said in an interview with the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat. "It should not become a means with which to isolate and oppress the others." 
While the security deal signed last month between the government and the rebels would lead to a lasting ceasefire and was a "positive agreement" overall, he said, "it is essential to find a way of transforming it into a national agreement and not a bilateral one". 
He rejected the notion of the government and the SPLA forming a partnership for life, which could not be dissolved, as both sides had "totally different ideological platforms". 
He also rejected the idea of integrated army units - part of the security deal - forming a future national army, and called for the introduction of recruitment "norms" to be put in place for a national armed force. 
Regarding the six year transitional period, al-Mahdi said there should be elections after two years and power-sharing should be based on the results of the elections, and not on the basis of "poltical arrangements" between the government and the SPLM/A. 
He added that if both parties took into consideration the "opinion of the Sudanese people" then his party would strongly and enthusiastically support a comprehensive agreement. 
"But if we feel that the agreement is based on monopoly, continuous totalitarianism, or removing the sovereignty from the Sudanese people, then we will strongly oppose it," he said. 

Tens of thousands of people who have fled from Darfur in western Sudan to neighbouring Chad are "invisible" to the humanitarian community, receiving practically no assistance, according to Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF). 
"MSF is extremely concerned about the lack of assistance and protection for Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad," it said in a statement released on Wednesday. "They are in dire need of assistance and protection against violence." 
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that about 75,000 people are currently scattered on the edge of the Darfur conflict zone, on the Chadian side of the border. Most of them, spread out over 600 km, are women and children. 
With temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius during the day and minus 15 at night, as well as sand storms and rain, respiratory infections among the refugees are on the rise. They have little shelter, relying on torn rags and bits of plastic sheeting. 
According to MSF, there is no clean drinking water, forcing people to dig in sandy riverbeds with their bare hands to find "a dirty brown liquid". With scarce food supplies, malnutrition is also on the increase. In their first three days of medical consultations, MSF received over 20 severely malnourished children. 
On top of the hardship faced in Chad, the refugees have already had to flee their homes to escape aerial bombardments and militia attacks in Darfur, MSF pointed out. 
"Without exception, the refugees are traumatised by the violence they have been subjected to. Many no longer have the emotional strength to do anything except lie in the sand day and night, letting events unfold around them," it said. 
A rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) launched a rebellion in March to fight against what it described as marginalisation and discrimination in Darfur. 
The military response by the government, which escalated throughout the summer forcing more and more people to become displaced or to flee to Chad, "is being backed up by systematic attacks by Arab militias who seek to crush the rebellion and terrorise villagers", MSF said. 
A ceasefire agreement between both sides came into effect on 6 September after which the government committed itself to controlling the militias, but the killings, burning of villages and displacements have continued. 
The UN estimates that within Darfur about 300,000 people have been displaced by the attacks since August. There are no accurate estimates of the numbers killed. 
UNHCR has launched an appeal for US $6.2 million for emergency assistance for the refugees. "We're painfully aware of the miserable situation of the Darfur refugees, and we desperately want to help them," said UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey.

Sudan is unprepared for the expected return of half a million refugees and one million displaced people once a comprehensive peace deal has been signed, according to a new report. 
"The challenges of mass return are overwhelming and local administrations appear still unprepared," says the report from the Norwegian think-tank, Global IDP Project. 
The immediate return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees has been named as a top priority for the interim period after the signing of a peace deal by the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM). 
Currently between 3.7 and 4.2 million people are estimated to be displaced in Sudan, including two million in Khartoum State and 1.4 million in SPLM/A territories. Most of the IDPs are scattered outside camps (which host about 700,000 people) and are often marginsalised within host populations, leading to higher malnutrition and mortality rates than among the host population. 
A recent NGO survey revealed that two thirds of IDPs interviewed in Khartoum, greater Kordofan, greater Bahr el Ghazal and greater Darfur wished to return to their areas of origin, said the report, entitled 'Sudan: IDPs on the edge of Peace?'. 
In addition to a massive demand for basic services, a functioning judicial system would be needed to settle the complicated land disputes arising from the returnees, it added. 
In SPLM-controlled areas, the UN estimates that only 17 judges are operating. 
The educational system also had to be developed to accommodate the returnees, as well as income-generating projects and infrastructure in rural areas to attract returnees from urban settings, the report said. 
Displaced people in Sudan have regularly been exposed to human rights violations, including helicopter gunship attacks, abductions, rape, destruction of relief sites and the burning of villages, it said. 

Over 100 children, mostly under five, have died from a suspected outbreak of whooping cough in Kimatong Budi county, Equatoria state, according to the NGO, Medair. 
In the space of four weeks from 20 August until 22 September, 126 children had died in the villages of Chawa, Kimatong, Thurunge and Kali, said Els Stam, Programme Coordinator for Medair. 
With no NGO presence in the area for five years, only one health facility with limited medicines, and no laboratory facilities it had been impossible to establish the precise causes of death, but whooping cough was suspected, she said. 
Of the 312 apparent cases observed by a Medair team from 22 until 25 September, half of them also had enlarged livers and spleen, she said. 
A Medair team returned to Kimatong Budi country on Thursday and plans to split into two teams, based in Chawa and Kimatong, to treat people and give them preventative medicine. A doctor, a number of nurses and a laboratory technician will be located in each place. 
Without vaccinations in the region, chronic malaria (and ongoing rains bringing further mosquitoes), plus the almost total lack of healthcare, children were very likely to become infected, she warned. 

About 300,000 people have been displaced by the conflict in Darfur's three states since August, as a result of widespread burning, looting and killing in their villages by Arab militias, humanitarian sources said on Friday. 
The "conservative estimate" of 300,000 is in addition to some 200,000 in south Darfur who were displaced by drought and conflict before the militia attacks escalated in March, the UN Area Coordinator for Western Sudan told IRIN. There are no reliable figures for the numbers killed. 
The conflict pits farming communities against nomads who have aligned themselves with the militia groups - for whom the raids are a way of life - in stiff competition for land and resources. The militias, known as the Janjaweed, attack in large numbers on horseback and camels and are driving the farmers from their land, often pushing them towards town centres. 
In south Darfur, an assessment conducted in late September found that of 62 villages, 46 had been "completely burned to ashes" while the rest had been looted. More attacks have taken place since then, according to local sources. 
Aid workers have not been allowed to access some of the displaced people, while those who have been reached are camped under trees with no food, water or any form of shelter, the NGO Oxfam said. Schools are also filling up with displaced people and pushing out local children. Locals have given the displaced some food and shelter but are reeling from drought and food shortages themselves. 
In north Darfur, 20 percent of villages have been burned and looted, resulting in about 150,000 displaced people, with large numbers fleeing towards the towns of Kebkabiya (38,000) and Korma (over 39,000), according to the UN. In Kebkabiya, over 58 percent of children under five were recently found to be malnourished, 41 of whom died. 
And in west Darfur about 75,000 people have been displaced - 45,000 of whom have congregated around the town of Mukjar. A further 65,000 from all three states have fled to neighbouring Chad. 
The UN said militia attacks were continuing in the west and south, but north Darfur had been relatively quiet for the last two weeks. 
Despite the ongoing attacks, humanitarian access to the region has improved significantly since a ceasefire agreement was signed on 6 September between the government and rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), the UN added. 
However some areas hosting the displaced remain inaccessible or difficult to access because of a complicated system requiring travel permits. 
Before the September ceasefire accord, the government had stopped issuing travel permits to most areas in the region - which has a population of about 5 million - effectively cutting them off from any assistance or outside monitoring of the attacks. 
Human rights groups have accused the government of supporting the militias, charges it denies although it has committed itself to controlling them. 
Regional analysts say those backing and arming the militias appear to have lost control over them. 

The 'Sudan Mirror', the first national newspaper aiming to develop a culture of peace and justice in war-torn Sudan, is to be launched on Monday. 
About 30,000 copies of the bi-monthly English-language newspaper will be printed in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and either bought in bulk by NGOs and flown into Sudan for distribution, or sold in shops and refugee camps in Kenya, Uganda and England (and possibly other countries) for the diaspora. 
"It's an informational and educational paper, written by Sudanese, for Sudanese, about Sudanese," Dan Eiffe, director of the donor-sponsored project, told IRIN. "We would like it be used as a tool, encouraging literacy, but also so people can become engaged in the peace process." 
A team of about 20 reporters will file regular stories from various locations, through a network of offices in Rumbek, Yei, and Panyagor in Sudan, as well as Lokichokio and Nairobi in Kenya, and Koboku and Kampala in northern Uganda. 
All of the articles - which particularly target Sudan's literate youth - will be geared towards development and peace covering a wide range of issues from the environment, the economy, democratisation, gender issues, refugees and displaced people, reconciliation, education, human rights, the peace process, and health and HIV/AIDS. 
Eiffe stressed that the paper had a strict editorial policy of balance and neutrality. "We will not allow it to be used as a propaganda tool...our survival depends on it," he said. "The new war in Sudan is going to be a war over the hearts and minds of people to influence them on issues of separation and unity. We don't want to become a part of that." 
He added that every effort would be made to distribute the paper in the north of the country, and that he hoped to print copies in Arabic once the project got started. 
But already difficulties have been encountered. Two months ago, the Sudanese government adopted both the original title of the broadsheet, 'Sudan Vision', and its precise logo in a new daily government newspaper, forcing him to change the name. 
Earlier this week, two other newspapers in Sudan were temporarily banned - one reportedly because of an alcohol advertisement, the other because of inaccurate information about the effects of the peace process on the national army. In August, President Omar al-Bashir stated that press censorship had been lifted. 
In a recent report the Denmark-based International Media Support (IMS) said that most people in Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, had little or no access to any independent information on the "terrifying humanitarian costs" of the civil war. The "severe shortage of information" had also prevented any serious public debate on less controversial, non-military matters, it said. 

“The optimism on a peace accord for Sudan is founded, but the times will be a little longer than foreseen and a signing will not take place before next year. But it is important to clarify that from the moment of the signing an even more difficult phase will begin”. This was the statement made by Monsignor Cesare Mazzolari, Comboni Bishop of Rumbek, in South Sudan, who today in an interview with MISNA, expressed satisfaction over the results obtained so far in the peace talks organised by the international community for an end to Sudanese conflict: a war for over twenty years contrasting the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and government of Khartoum. “The path toward peace is still long – continued Bishop Mazzolari – there is much satisfaction over the security accord reached by the sides, but a definitive agreement must still be found on the division of control over the oil zones and relative proceeds”. This is however not the only aspect of the peace process troubling the Bishop of Rumbek, along with the entire Sudan Church. “Based on the accords reached so far between the sides, South Sudan is destined to become a sort of militarised State. The large presence, throughout vast zones of the territory, of a combined military force, thousands of Sudanese soldiers and as many rebels, risks not being accepted by the civil population that is tired of seeing combatants everywhere”, continued the prelate. At least two generations of Sudanese grew up with the “nightmare of guns” and now that peace is set to prevail, their fear paradoxically risks escalating. “I feel that both the rebels and government must really dedicate themselves to peace, or they risk losing popular support. The eventual peace treaty must only mark the end of a phase and opening of another, in which the civil society finds the space it deserves”, he explained to MISNA. So far the civil society of South Sudan was kept on the margins of the negotiations, all the participants – rebels, government and mediators – always claimed that they would have a role only after the resolution of the conflict. “For the moment there are no clear indications in direction of the people and many associations of the nation. Sudan will only reach a real peace with the introduction of a civil administration, civil police and a diminished presence of armed forces. The people are tired of war and tired of living in a militarised state and have to always deal with soldiers”, added the prelate. For this reason Monsignor Mazzolari launches an appeal to the international community: “Do not abandon the nation after the signing of an eventual accord. Help the Sudanese civil society to develop, it is an undoubtedly more engaging phase than the current negotiations, as also essential for Sudan to finally know a real peace”.

It is just a question of time: the end to the Sudanese two-decade civil war appears always more a certainty. This is what emerged from the declarations released in the past 48 hours by all the main protagonists of the peace talks (rebels, government and United Nations mediators) for an end to the Sudanese conflict that since 1983 claimed at least 2-million lives. Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osmane Taha, today on an official visit in Egypt, a short while ago stated that a definitive peace accord should be signed in “a few weeks”. An affirmation echoed by John Garang – leader of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army), the armed movement combating for twenty years for major autonomy in the Christian and Animist South Sudan from the Muslim North – who speaking before a crowd of supporters in Rumbek, defined the peace process as “irreversible”. On the same tone also the declarations of Tom Eric Vraalsen, special envoy for Sudan of the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who however observed that the accords will only be able to be signed at the end of the year, due to the suspensions in the talks for the religious holidays of Ramadan and Christmas. The UN envoy expressed himself “very impressed” by the efforts on both the government and rebel parts in conducting the negotiations in this last phase. The optimism of a fast solution to the Sudanese war was renewed in the past days by the signing, on Thursday, of the accord on the composition of the armed forces that will be called to guarantee security in the South. Both the Sudanese Vice-President and rebel leader defined the security accord a “fundamental step” along the path toward peace. This last phase of the negotiations will however bring to the table very delicate issues, that so far have brought out all the differences between Khartoum and the rebels: the division of control over the oil rich zones of the South and distribution of the relative proceeds.

Armed militias of Darfur (West Sudan) launched an attack within the borders of Chad, robbing around 800 camels from the nomads in the area of Koulbous, around 20km from the town of Birak, along the semi-desert border zone between the two nations. Th episode was referred by Sonya Peyrassol, MSF (Doctors Without Borders) representative in Chad. Camels represent one of the main resources of this very poor zone, which over the past months has hosted some 15-thousand refugees from nearby Sudan due to the continuing attacks by armed groups of Arab origin. Another 20-thousand Sudanese – based on estimates of the N’Djamena government – took shelter in Tine, while another thousand are camped out along the border. According to the same source, the Chad forces repelled the Sudanese militias back over the border. Due to the systematic attacks against the civil population of this zone of Sudan, in February the SPLA-M (Sudan People’s Liberation Army-Movement) formed in Darfur and rose against the government of Khartoum. The SPLA-M accuses the Sudan authorities of not protecting the Darfur population, for years subjected to the violence of Arab gangs.

Sudanese judicial authorities shut down a daily newspaper again Friday, pending further investigation, only two days after it reappeared following closure of more than a month, the Sudan Media Centre (SMC) said.
An SMC report published by local newspapers quoted the prosecutor of anti-state crimes, Mohamed Farid Hassan, who issued the suspension order, as saying the daily Alwan would stay closed until investigation into a lawsuit filed by the security authorities against it is completed.
The newspaper reappeared on Wednesday after a judicial official cancelled an order by the prosecutor general closing the daily in mid-August for publishing reports regarded by the authorities as inciting hatred and discord.

The United States on Friday lauded a security agreement reached this week between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA/M), calling it an "historic" accord that should boost efforts for permanent settlement of the conflict.
"This is really significant and something we're really quite pleased about, " deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"This is pretty historic and the remaining details of a final peace accord are in the process of being negotiated," he told reporters. "Both sides have said they're working to bring that process to closure quickly."
The rebels led by John Garang, and Khartoum, signed the agreement on Thursday at peace talks in Kenya. It was seen as a key step towards a full peace agreement that would put an end to the longest and one of the bloodiest civil wars in Africa.
The deal, which lays out the positions and strengths of the government and rebel forces, was reached after three weeks of Kenyan-mediated talks between Garang and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha.
Their talks adjourned Friday, with delegations to meet again on October 6.
Sudan's civil war erupted in 1983 when the SPLA/M took up arms to end domination of the mainly Christian and animist south by the Muslim north. It has since killed more than 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.
The United States has been pressing both sides to negotiate in good faith and has threatened to tighten sanctions against Khatoum and step up assistance to the rebels should it determine the government is not cooperating in the peace process.
In April, US President George W. Bush determined that Khartoum was negotiating in good faith and waived the imposition of new sanctions but must make a new evaluation next month.

Sudan's civil war foes adjourned three weeks of peace talks on Friday after clinching a security deal that cleared a major stumbling block in efforts to end their 20-year-old conflict, a mediator said. 
Sudan's government and main rebel group the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a key security accord on Thursday during the negotiations aimed at resolving Africa's longest war, which has killed some two million people. 
Security had been the biggest sticking point in the talks between Sudan's First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and SPLA head John Garang. 
"We adjourned the meeting and the (government and SPLA) committees are going to meet on the 6th of next month," Kenyan chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo told reporters at the talks venue near Lake Naivasha, 90 km (55 miles) from Kenya's capital Nairobi. 
"The principal leaders, Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, have agreed to meet again but have not yet set a date." 
Differences remain on a host of other issues -- ranging from the status of the capital Khartoum to how to share power and wealth from the south's lucrative oilfields. 
Peace has eluded Sudan despite years of efforts to end the civil war, which broke out in 1983, pitting the Islamist government in the north against rebels seeking greater autonomy in the mainly animist and Christian south. 
There was a notable breakthrough last year when the two sides agreed to give southerners the right to a referendum on secession after a six-year transition.

The international community has widely welcomed an historic agreement on security arrangements between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the parties to sustain the current pace of the talks, taking place in Naivasha, Kenya, and to reach a "speedy settlement of the conflict".
The US State Department hailed the "extraordinary courage" of Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha and SPLM/A Chairman John Garang, and committed itself to working "tirelessly" with both parties to resolve the remaining issues. 
The European Union said it encouraged the parties to "seize the momentum" to reach a final peace deal and reiterated its readiness to "assist the parties in the implementation of the peace agreement". The British government said it would continue to give "every support" to the Sudanese parties and the mediators in their efforts to resolve the conflict.
The agreement, signed on Thursday, allows both the government and the SPLA to retain separate armed forces, which will be proportionally downsized during the six-and-a-half-year interim period. 
The forces will be disengaged, separated, and redeployed during the interim period, while an internationally monitored ceasefire is in place. Both armies will be "considered and treated equally" as Sudan's national armed forces and will be governed "by consensus", says the text of the agreement. 
Joint integrated units of equal numbers - a symbol of "national unity" - will be deployed in southern Sudan (12,000 from each side), the Nuba mountains (3,000 each), Southern Blue Nile (3,000 each) and the capital Khartoum (1,500 each). A "common military doctrine" will be the basis for training the forces on both sides, as well as the integrated units.
The rest of the government armed forces which are deployed in the south will be moved to north of the 1956 border within two and a half years from the signing of a comprehensive agreement. Similarly, SPLA forces which are not part of the integrated units and are currently deployed in the Nuba mountains and Southern Blue Nile will be moved south of the 1956 border.
Other armed forces or militias in Sudan will not form part of the national armies, says the text. 
"No armed group allied to either party shall be allowed to operate outside the two forces," it stated.  Members of these groups who qualify will be incorporated into the army, police, prisons and wildlife forces of each side, or reintegrated into the civil service and civil society.
In eastern Sudan, the SPLA will move south of the border within a year of the signing of a comprehensive agreement, while the parties will discuss the possibility of establishing joint units there.
Parties at the Naivasha talks are expected to immediately resume negotiations on the areas of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains, as well as the broader issues of power and wealth sharing.

A key stumbling block in Sudanese peace negotiations was overcome on Thursday with the signing of a security agreement between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Naivasha, Kenya. 
Under the deal, Sudan will have two separate armed forces as well as integrated units and an internationally monitored ceasefire agreement once a final deal has been signed.
The breakthrough, achieved after three weeks of unprecedented talks between SPLA leader John Garang and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, has raised hopes on all sides for a final peace settlement.
"Your persistence in the matter...was a clear demonstration that you have both decided to put the interests of your country, the Sudan, before your own interests and that you are determined to realise a just and durable peace," Kenyan mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo told the sides at the signing ceremony.
"We are now sure that you will bring to a close the remaining issues of power sharing, wealth sharing and [the] conflict areas [Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains]," he added.
Garang told reporters he had spoken to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday night and they had congratulated each other on the step taken towards a "just and fair settlement". 
"With this agreement, the direction and orientation for peace in Sudan is irreversible," he said. The parties would return to the negotiating table immediately to resolve the remaining issues with the same "commitment and resolve". 
"We will not lose momentum," he stressed.
Garang added that this deal, unlike others, would be binding because guarantees had been built into it. The SPLA had been allowed to keep its own army, and "neither of the parties will have the capacity to break it", he said. "The Sudanese people will not allow it to be tampered with."
Speaking of a final peace settlement, Sayeed El-Khativ, the chief negotiator for the Sudanese government said: "Nothing is going to be beyond our attainment - we are going to achieve this."
Domenico Polloni, deputy head of mission at the Italian Embassy in Nairobi and one of the observers to the talks, said it was the first "substantive agreement" between the two sides since the Machakos agreement was signed in July 2002. "It's really a big breakthrough," he said. 

Sudanese refugees are continuing to flee from Darfur in western Sudan into Chad to escape militia attacks, according to the NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
While the numbers remained unclear, pockets of people continued to cross the border every night when they could get across more easily, Sonia Peyrassol, MSF Operational Coordinator for Chad, told IRIN. Border officials appeared to be trying to stop the flow, she said, but it was unclear whether it was on the Sudanese or the Chadian side.
About 15,000 people are believed to be camped in and around the town of Birak, up to 6,000 in Tine, and tens of thousands of others along the 400 km border between the two countries. 
MSF teams in eastern Chad had received reports of militia groups in Darfur raping women and kidnapping them, burning down villages and stealing their cattle, she said. 
Arab militias regularly attacked civilians and stole their cattle and possessions, the secretary general of the the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), Minni Arkou Minnawi, told IRIN. The SLA accuses the Sudanese government of backing the militias - charges denied by the Sudanese authorities. 
Most of the refugees who arrive in Chad have no possessions and are sheltering under blankets suspended by twigs in a desert region with extreme temperatures and daily rains, Peyrassol said.  Food is scarce and they are forced to drink water and wash in a local river, which they share with animals. The main illnesses are malaria and diarrhoea.
The Sudanese government has acknowledged that the militias are a "problem" and said it will act to address them, Tom Vraalsen, the UN's Special Envoy for Sudan, told IRIN this week following a mission to the area.
A 45-day ceasefire agreement effective 6 September was signed by the government and the SLA, and talks between both sides are reportedly ongoing in El Fashir, in northern Darfur. 
An estimated 400,000 people have been displaced in Darfur because of the conflict, which erupted when the SLA took up arms to fight against what it described as discrimination and marginalisation in March.

The UN is preparing for the implementation of a peace agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), UN Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Vraalsen told IRIN in Nairobi.
Once the parties had agreed on security arrangements, and officially requested the UN to take part in a peacekeeping mission, the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO) would draw on its expertise to detail the arrangements, Vraalsen said. "They are in the process of planning," he said, adding that the DPKO was "more less on standby", but it was too early to tell the possible size, makeup and deployment details of such a force.
He said both the government and the SPLM/A had emphasised to him that a peace keeping force was a top priority once a comprehensive peace deal had been signed. The second priority was that Sudan should immediately be in a position to receive the tens of thousands of refugees in surrounding countries and between three and four million internally displaced within the country who wished to return to their homes, he noted. 
Vraalsen has just completed a two-week tour of Darfur, Southern Blue Nile, Unity State, and Khartoum in Sudan, as well as three Kenyan locations: Nairobi, the capital, Lokichokio - the launching pad for most humanitarian assistance to Sudan - and Naivasha, where peace talks have been taking place for over two weeks between SPLA leader John Garang and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha. 
Both sides at the Naivasha talks have agreed to renew a ceasefire agreement for two months, due to expire at the end of September.
Vraalsen said he was increasingly optimistic that a peace agreement would be signed "before too long", and he emphasised that the much-needed donor support for Sudan was dependent on both sides respecting that agreement. "It is very important in order to encourage the donor community, that the parties are seen to be positive, actively, proactively implementing agreements which they have entered into," he said. "They have to display a spirit of cooperation and a wish to see these agreements put into practice."
He added that Sudan would be expected to use its own resources to rebuild the war-torn country. "The country has its own resources which it will have to use. It will also be important in the donor context that they [the Sudanese] are seen to use their own resources in a positive way and for productive purposes."
While there was considerable donor interest in Sudan at the moment, if an agreement was not respected a price would have to be paid, he added. It would have a direct impact on donor support as well as the international recognition that both sides were seeking. "This is too important and too much has been invested in it," he said. 
Monitoring mechanisms would also be built into any final peace agreement and the international community would keep a "very close watch" on whether it was being respected, said Vraalsen. He hoped that a UN resolution would be passed that would recognise a final agreement and act as a guarantor for its implementation.
The UN would encourage as many donors as possible to donate to Sudan, but it was impossible to tell how long that interest would last, he added. "It is a priority at least now but for how long it will be a priority, that remains to be seen."

The Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement rebel group in Darfur, western Sudan, struck a deal on Wednesday to allow "free and unimpeded" humanitarian access to the region.
It is hoped the agreement will allow aid to reach about 500,000 people who have been cut off since March - when the SLA took up arms against the government - and are in "dire need" of aid, said the UN. Fighting in the region as well as adverse weather conditions brought on by the rainy season, had caused a sharp decline in the numbers of people able to receive aid, it added.
An estimated 400,000 people are currently displaced within Darfur due to fighting and at least 70,000 are in neighbouring Chad. 
The SLA launched its rebellion in March to fight against "marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation" in the region, which covers about one fifth of the country and ranks among its poorest and most neglected areas. 
A 45-day ceasefire agreement effective 6 September was signed by the government and the SLA. It provides for the control of all armed forces in the region, the release of prisoners of war, the relocation of SLA forces and measures to generate economic and social development in the area. 
But the SLA has said that numerous attacks targeting civilians - either from helicopter gunships or militia groups - have occurred since the deal was signed, a charge that the government has denied. 
Human Rights Watch warned on Thursday that the latest ceasefire was not the first such agreement that had been signed in Darfur. Conflicts over land rights had been brewing there for years, it said, resulting in tens of thousand of people - then and now - fleeing to Chad "to escape government and militia persecution".
HRW recommended that a demobilisation conference be held in Sudan to be attended by the Sudanese army, main rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, and the SLA, and specifically including 32 groups in the south that are armed by the Sudanese government. 
"The conference shall plan for demobilisation, rehabilitation and training programmes for those wishing to be demobilised, with particular attention to the special needs of children," it said.

The UN has submitted a plan to the Sudanese government, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army rebel group and donors to spend over US $140 million on immediate assistance to the country in the event of a peace deal.
The quick-start programme, designed to support the Sudanese peace process, envisages spending US $142,330,800 in a one-year programme. It hopes to "demonstrate the positive impact of the peace process in key conflict-affected geographical areas"  by allowing the Sudanese to benefit from "peace dividends".
Once a deal had been signed, expectations among Sudanese populations would be very high, said the UN. "It will be necessary to provide recovery assistance that responds rapidly to the legitimate expectations and demands of Sudanese populations who will be eager to see rapid improvements."
The money is to be divided among various UN agencies, and spent across northern and southern Sudan in 37 separate projects.
A Joint Planning Mechanism was set up by the government and the SPLM this year to plan where and what assistance would be needed in Sudan during the six-and-a-half year interim period, following the signing of a peace deal. A meeting held in May decided that immediate priorities should include the return and reintegration of all displaced persons and refugees, economic development, mine-action programmes, the building of infrastructure, and the rehabilitation of basic services such as health, education, sanitation, and water supply.
It is expected that between three and four million internally displaced Sudanese will either return to their homes or move to a place of their choice once a peace deal has been signed.

Thousands of refugees who have fled insecurity in Darfur, western Sudan, and are currently scattered along the border with Chad, are in urgent need of assistance, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
"Thousands of Sudanese refugees, mainly women and children, had to flee their homes and country completely empty handed, and are arriving in Chad in bad shape," says Sonia Peyrassol, MSF operational coordinator for Chad. "There's no time to waste, we have to send staff and supplies immediately to respond to the increasing needs."
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimated last week that about 70,000 Sudanese refugees had entered Chad, while hundreds more were "streaming" in. They are scattered in about 20 locations along the border, with many located around Tine and Birak. 
MSF said that while no epidemics had been found among the refugees in the desert-like region, respiratory infections and diarrhoea were a problem. Weather conditions were extreme with high temperatures during the day and very cold nights, while the rainy season had not yet ended. Potential health risks were deadly diseases like measles and whooping cough, as well as malnutrition as there was "hardly any food to find". 
"Conditions are in place for a rapid deterioration of the situation," said MSF. "There is no infrastructure [such as shelter or sanitation] for the reception of refugees, local health centres are empty and the reference hospitals of Iriba and Guereda have no water, no medicines, and no laboratory."
A 45-day ceasefire agreement effective 6 September has been signed by the government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army rebel (SLA/M) group. The deal, which was brokered by Chad, provides for the control of all armed forces in the region, the release of prisoners of war, the relocation of SLA forces and measures to generate economic and social development in the area. 
According to the UN, discussions are currently ongoing between the parties in El Fashir, northern Darfur, and both sides have acknowledged that all prisoners of war have been released by the other side. Areas of relocation for the SLA are currently being identified and the government has put forward proposals regarding the withdrawal of irregular armed forces from the region. 
But the SLA says that attacks targeting civilians - either from helicopter gunships, or militia groups - have occurred almost daily since the deal was signed, a charge that the government has denied. While there are no independent observers in Darfur to monitor such allegations, the UNHCR reported last week that hundreds of people were fleeing to Chad "to escape aerial attacks". 
In a separate development, the UN launched an appeal this week for US $22.8 to assist the three states of Darfur which rank among the poorest and most neglected areas of the country.

The aim of the funding was to meet "urgent human survival and welfare needs and to help consolidate peace", said the appeal document. It would accelerate the provision of humanitarian relief, and "help diffuse immediate triggers to violence" through a fast-track programme focusing on the creation of livelihoods and provision of services. 

The past two weeks have seen the highest-level and most important meetings between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the last twenty years, yielding high hopes for a peace deal, according to the think-tank, International Crisis Group.
While the process was now "delicately poised between success and failure" and both sides needed to become more flexible, the key decisions-makers were all present at the negotiating table, and good proposals were being put forward, said John Prendergast, ICG Africa Programme Co-Director. "All of the excuses for non-agreement have been stripped bare," he said, adding that SPLM/A leader John Garang and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha had already had 25 hours of unprecedented face-to-face discussions.
No agreements have been reached yet on any of the key issues of security, and power- and wealth-sharing arrangements for the six-and-a-half-year interim period following the signing of an agreement. The contested areas of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains, which are technically part of the north but seek some autonomy, have still not been discussed in any detail. But both sides were leaving behind their polarised positions and had begun the all-important "horse-trading", he said. 
Security issues are widely held to be the key to a comprehensive peace deal, and in particular arrangements governing the co-existence of the national army and the SPLA, as well as their partial integration. 
Warning that hard-line elements on both sides could still spoil the momentum, Prendergast said if the talks collapsed within the next week or two, and there was a return to war, it would be due to the failure of specific individuals.
He added that if a deal was not struck this time around, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediation, could also fall apart. "This may be the last IGAD dance," he said. 

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group has accused the government of Sudan and allied militia of repeatedly attacking civilians in Darfur, northern Sudan, since the signing of a ceasefire agreement in neighbouring Chad on 3 September. However, the Sudanese government has denied the claim.
"Since the ceasefire until yesterday, there have been almost continuous attacks," Minni Minawi Arkou, Secretary-General of the SLA, told IRIN. "Sometimes they attack with aircraft, sometimes with tanks, sometimes with militia, sometimes they come together," he said.
On Friday two helicopter gunships attacked Khashaba, about 30km north of Kutum, northern Darfur, he said. As people fled from fields to escape the gunshots, militiamen arrived to steal their cattle. About 75 people were killed in the incident, while over 40 had gone "missing" since the attacks, he said. On Saturday a further 17 civilians were killed by militiamen in Abu Leiha, about 100 km west of Kutum, said Minnawi. 
However, an information advisor in the Sudanese embassy in London, Abdulla el-Sadig, denied the allegations, saying "the ceasefire signed in the Darfur area is still holding". He said "elements" who had been affiliated with the SLA, and had not been in favour of the ceasefire deal, were "spreading allegations" about attacks.
"There are no independent sources to confirm what they [the rebels] are saying," he said. "We have no confirmation ... The government is denying all these claims."
While there are no independent observers in Darfur to monitor specific allegations regarding attacks on civilians, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported last week that almost 70,000 people had fled from Darfur into neighbouring Chad and that hundreds more were still "streaming" in "to escape aerial attacks". 
An inter-agency assessment mission last week to border areas in Chad witnessed the arrival of over 800 new refugees in the border town of Agan, about 180 km from Abeche, eastern Chad. The newly arriving refugees told the team they had fled from government forces bombing their villages on Wednesday last week, UNHCR reported.
Refugees fleeing from Darfur are currently scattered in nearly 20 sites along Chad's eastern border with Sudan, but humanitarian workers are unable to reach some of them. About 5,000 refugees believed to be in the town of Tissi were inaccessible due to poor road conditions, especially during the rainy season, and insecurity in Chad, UNHCR added.
Many of the refugees are women and children, who have no access to shelter or clean drinking water.
The SLA launched its rebellion in March to fight against "marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation" in Darfur, home to about one fifth of Sudan's population of 30 million people. 
Since then, humanitarian sources have reported that thousands of civilians - who appear to be targeted along ethnic lines - are displaced within Darfur, while hundreds have been killed in clashes between the SLA, government-affiliated militia groups, government troops or by aerial bombings. The displaced come mainly from the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit and Tungur ethnic groups.

There is an urgent need for increased donor support to save lives in Sudan, said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday.
"There is no time for complacency," said Annan in his latest report to the UN General Assembly on humanitarian assistance to Sudan. "The humanitarian imperative to save lives and reduce human suffering cannot await the completion of the peace process."
It was crucial that a transitional programme be planned and funded in advance of any final peace settlement, he said. The donor community and the UN must mobilise to ensure and maintain the security, safety and health of the Sudanese people "now that the foundations for genuine progress towards peace exist," he added.
Sudan has the highest number of displaced people in the world, estimated at over 3.5 million.
On Thursday, the government delegation at the peace talks, currently taking place in Naivasha, Kenya, reportedly requested a three-day break from negotiations with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to deliberate separately. The SPLM has reportedly put forward a paper to the government and mediators outlining its positions on the key issues to be thrashed out by both sides - namely security, and power- and wealth-sharing arrangements during the six-and-a-half-year interim period. 
Security issues have been the focus of discussions in the make-or-break talks, and in particular arrangements governing the co-existence of the national army and the SPLA, as well as their partial integration. 
The unprecedented talks between SPLM/A leader John Garang and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha have been taking place for over a week now, leading many to believe that a deal may be struck. Taha was joined on Wednesday by the Sudanese Minister of Defence, Maj Gen Bakri Hassan Salih and other army generals, and on Thursday by experts on wealth-sharing.

Make-or-break talks between Sudan's rebel leader, John Garang, and Vice President, Ali Osman Taha, aimed at breaking the deadlock in the Sudanese peace process are making progress, sources close to the negotiations told IRIN.
The source said both sides were finalising the details of a security deal and that the Sudanese Minister of Defence, Maj Gen Bakri Hassan Salih, and other military personnel were expected to arrive soon in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, to take part in the negotiations. 
He said once a deal on security arrangements - for the six-and-a-half-year interim period following the signing of a comprehensive peace deal - was reached, things would "move forward". "If we agree on security we will not have problems with other areas," he said.
Key security issues include the size, makeup and structure of a national army, whether the SPLA will be encorporated into that army or remain separate, and where the forces will be deployed. 
Preliminary discussions had also taken place about the three contested areas of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains, as well as power-sharing arrangements but had not yielded any results, sources said.
The peace process stalled in July when the government rejected a draft framework peace agreement, put forward by the IGAD negotiators, on the basis that it favoured the SPLM/A.
Speaking last week to journalists, Garang said the rejection was "threatening the whole IGAD peace process with collapse". He said "we are going to Naivasha to save the process from collapsing, to resolve the deadlock."

Despite the considerable resources invested in health care in southern Sudan over the years, the impact they have made "seems pale in comparison to the continuing needs", says the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, in a new report.
A combination of chronic underdevelopment, acute natural disasters and ongoing civil strife, meant that health care needs were still not being met in many places, said the agency in a report entitled "Overview of the Health Situation in Sudan 2002".
"Access to health care is not good and it is not improving," the author of the report, Dr Michaleen Richer, told IRIN. Without roads and transport to bring people to health services, communications systems between health workers and people living in rural areas, and higher levels of education to allow people to diagnose correctly and prevent illness from occurring, no real impact would be made, she said.
She added that routine immunisations and preventative health care were "very poorly supported" by local Sudanese populations, who had to concern themselves with the basic needs in life - finding food, clothing and shelter.
Similarly mothers were unable to walk for kilometers to a health centre to access medical care during pregnancy, she said. "One of the leading failures in health interventions is care for pregnant mothers and women of child-bearing age," noted Richer. Only 22 percent of deliveries in southern Sudan were attended by a trained health care worker, UNICEF reported.
Sudan has only about 1,500 hospital beds for the some eight million people in the rebel-controlled areas of Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, the Nuba mountains and Southern Blue Nile.
Many of the most common illnesses in Sudan are easily preventable and treatable, if people could only access quality health care. Malaria is the most common illness diagnosed by health workers, followed by diarrhoeal infections, respiratory ailments, intestinal parasites, eye and skin diseases and sexually transmitted diseases. Others include Guinea worm, trachoma, onchocerciasis, elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, Kala azar, TB, and leprosy.
Sudan currently had 80 percent of the world's Guinea worm cases, according to Richer, which could easily be prevented if people had access to clean water.
There are currently about 66 agencies involved in health provision to southern Sudan - 19 of which are Sudanese agencies - but the spread of their services is unequal. Equatoria has 26 percent of the population and 48 percent of the facilities, while Bahr el Ghazal has 49 percent of the population and only 21 percent of the facilities. In the rebel-controlled areas of Southern Blue Nile there are only four agencies operating and in the Nuba Mountains only three.
In 2002, it is estimated that more than US $55 million was spent by agencies on health care in southern Sudan, UNICEF reported.

Plans to relocate thousands of Sudanese refugees from an area in western Ethiopia where ethnic clashes killed some 100 people a few months ago have been abandoned, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Tuesday. However, an alternative site is being sought and the relocation should be done by the end of the year, UNHCR said
UNHCR's Mahary Maasho told IRIN that the plan to move 24,500 refugees from Fugnido in Ethiopia's remote Gambella Region to the new site at Odier - about 50 km away - had been scrapped following serious flooding at Odier during heavy rains. "This site had to be abandoned unfortunately," Mahary said. "This was a new site and nobody was able to tell what would happen during the rains."
UNHCR had announced plans to move thousands of refugees from Fugnido camp in February after fierce clashes pitted Anuaks against Nuers and Dinkas, both inside the camp and within the Ethiopian host community. Forty-two people were killed in the worst clash, which occurred within the camp in November 2002. 
At the end of December, over 500 refugees were transported to the Bonga refugee camp, some 160 kilometres northeast of Fugnido. UNHCR had intended turning the site at Odier into a camp for Nuers and Dinkas. 
Mahary said the agency was still planning to move the refugees from Fugnido by the end of the year, and that surveying work would be completed in October. "The move should happen this year, but this would not be the first time that we faced delays," he said. "There are many actors involved." 
Fugnido is home to more than 28,700 refugees. It is the largest of five refugee settlements in Gambella, which hosts a total of 85,000 Sudanese.

A rebel group in western Sudan's Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), has accused the Sudanese government of breaking a ceasefire agreement signed last Wednesday by both sides.
SLM Secretary-General Minni Arkou Minnawi told IRIN the government had attacked three of its camps outside Kutum, northern Darfur. On Sunday morning, two helicopter gunships and government militias attacked the camps, he said, killing two members of the SLA and injuring four. "We don't know how many civilians have been caught up in it," he added. Minnawi said similar attacks were continuing on Monday. No comment was available from the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi.
The agreement, which came into effect on 6 September for 45 days, covered a ceasefire, ways of controlling armed irregular groups in the region, and the release of all prisoners of war and those detained in connection with the conflict.
The Sudanese government said on Saturday that it had freed 54 SLA prisoners as part of the agreement, agencies reported. 
A 15-member committee made up of five representatives each of the government, the SLM/A and Chad was due to begin talks on Sunday in the Sudanese border town of Teina, western Darfur, but Minnawi told IRIN the SLA would agree to talk only after the truce had been respected.
The SLA launched its rebellion in March to fight against "marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation" in the region. Hundreds of civilians, mainly from the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit and Tungur ethnic groups, have been killed or injured in what appear to be targeted attacks, and tens of thousands have been displaced in the last few months, Amnesty International said in a recent report.
The human rights group said it feared "the death toll in Darfur is much higher than that which is currently reported", due to a lack of independent observers in the region and an information black-out. The World Organisation Against Torture has also been appealing on behalf of detainees in Darfur, accused of supporting the SLM/A, who have allegedly been detained arbitrarily, ill-treated and tortured. 
Meanwhile, an assessment mission carried out last week by the Chadian authorities and UN agencies found that 65,000 Sudanese refugees - mostly women and children - who fled the fighting and ethnic violence in Darfur were living in "miserable" conditions in neighbouring Chad. They were living out in the open with no shelter, blankets or plastic sheeting to protect themselves and no access to clean water, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported. An unknown number of children had already died of malaria, diarrhoea and starvation.
The refugees are scattered in parts of three regions in northern and north-eastern Chad. In Teina subprefecture, the 28,000 registered refugees had "swamped" the local population of just 11,000, said UNHCR. While some locals had given the refugees food, they did not have enough to eat themselves, said the agency, and some refugees had resorted to eating tree bark. 
"The influx continues, with new refugees arriving every day, and even more expected," it added.

The Austrian government-controlled OMV oil company, operating in Sudan's controversial oil fields, sold its interests this week to India's oil and natural gas company, ONGC Videsh.
OMV Company spokesman, Thomas Huemer, told IRIN the company's oil exploration in Sudan was a financial engagement, and that it had decided to put its money elsewhere. "It's a normal thing to do," he said. The company had decided to pull out - in a deal worth US $115 million - for "strategic and economic" reasons, he said. 
This is the third western company to sell up in Sudan, following numerous reports documenting human rights abuses around the oil fields, and campaigns by human rights groups who say the country's oil industry - worth at least US $ 1 billion a year - has exacerbated the 20 year conflict, by providing the revenue which pays for it. 
Canadian company Talisman sold its interests in March to the same Indian company and Swedish Lundin sold some of its shares in June to Malaysia's Petronas.
Huemer maintained that OMV was a force for good in Sudan. "While we there, even as a minority partner, we tried to improve the conditions of the local population," he added. "We had a code of conduct to improve conditions and we put in 6.5 million euro to help with health, sanitation and so on. We followed ethical standards aimed at improving local conditions."
Western oil companies are being heavily pressurised by both international and national lobby groups to either pull out of Sudan, or guarantee to protect human rights. 
OMV was criticised for its resumption of activities in Sudan in March 2003, having suspended them since January 2002 for "security reasons". The company said that "positive developments in the peace in the peace process," had enabled it to return.
At the forefront of the lobby campaign in Austria was Sudan Plattform Austria, a group of church bodies and NGOs, which said that the only way to "normalise" OMV's activities in Sudan would be in the context of peace. 
The New Sudan Council of Churches reiterated last month its position that all oil exploration and exploitation should cease in Sudan until a comprehensive peace agreement had been signed  between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army rebel group. 
While oil reserves produce a key source of income for the Sudanese government, a study conducted by PFC Strategic Studies last year predicted that while current earnings are probably between $ 1 and 1.2 billion annually, the resources would soon dry up. 
"Without a dramatic improvement in the field size distribution pattern and success rates, annual oil production and annual net cash flow to the government will decline at a significant rate after 2008-2010," it said. 
[To access the report see http://www.csis.org/africa/0208_SudanPFCDetail.pdf]

The leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), John Garang, is to hold face-to-face talks with the vice-president of Sudan, Ali Osman Taha, in Kenya aimed at breaking the deadlock in peace talks.
"We have come fully prepared to resolve the issues," Garang told reporters in Nairobi before departing for Naivasha in the Rift Valley to begin the talks. "We are under pressure from the Sudanese people, they want peace and we want peace." 
Garang, who is to meet Taha for the first time, said it was up to the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediators to decide how long the talks would last.
He reiterated that the key issues remained security arrangements, wealth and power sharing arrangements, and the issue of the presidency. He said the government currently had 100 percent power and 100 percent wealth in Sudan and the key question was how much it was willing to relinquish.
SPLM spokesman Samson Kwaje added that the movement was "ready and prepared to make tough decisions". The SPLM/A expected Taha to "have the courage to make the required decisions, to accept change and the inevitable transition to peace and democracy", he added.
Delegations from the SPLM and the government are due to restart peace negotiations on 10 September. Previous talks were adjourned on 23 August to allow both sides time for consolations. 
Peace talks stalled in July when the Sudanese government team rejected a draft power-sharing document that had been put forward by IGAD, on the basis that it was unbalanced. They were restarted on 10 August and were adjourned after 13 days to allow both sides time for consultations.

The Sudanese government and Darfur-based rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) signed a ceasefire accord in the Chadian town of Abeche on Wednesday under the auspices of the Chadian government, Sudanese television reported on Thursday. 
Ismat Abd-al-Rahman Zayn-al-Abidin, the commander of Western Military Area, signed on behalf of the government and SLA army chief of staff Abdullah Al Bakr signed on behalf of the rebels. The signing ceremony was attended by Abdullah Moussa Abderahmane, the Chadian minister of public security and immigration.
"The agreement covered ceasefire, cessation of all operations that contribute to the deterioration of the situation [in Darfur], ways of controlling armed irregular groups, and release of all prisoners of war and those detained in connection with the crisis from both sides," the television said.
The accord will go into effect on 6 September for a duration of 45 days, it added. 
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to Chad to escape intense fighting in the western Darfur region between the government and rebels. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed, but the numbers have been difficult to ascertain because of the remoteness of the area and difficulties in accessing it.
SLA secretary general Minni Arkou Minnawi earlier told IRIN his group was prepared to sign the accord.
The SLA launched its rebellion in March to fight against "marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation" in the region. 

Sudan, which has the highest prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the world, has made a commitment to ban the practice. 
At the end of a regional three-day symposium held last week in Khartoum, Health Minister Ahmed Osman Bilal expressed his government's commitment to eradicate FGM at all levels, according to a summary of proceedings provided by UNICEF. 
He said the government would produce a legislative framework banning the practice, which would be supported by a public statement by the president of Sudan, and accompanied and followed up by educational and awareness programmes.
On Monday, Sudanese newspapers reported that the national Human Rights Advisory Council said it would also support the drafting of a specific law to criminalise FGM.
Almost 90 percent of the female population in the north of the country undergo "the cut", which in many cases is practised in its most extreme form, known as infibulation. 
The minister stated that FGM was now considered a prohibited act for all medical practitioners. He endorsed a recommendation to widely publicise and implement the ban, and introduce stiff penalties for those who continue to perform the operations. 
Bilal added that FGM had no religious basis and said religious leaders would be involved in educating people. 
Speaking at the close of the symposium, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, said FGM was "a clear indicator of Sudanese society's broad condoning of gender inequality, violence against women and children, and the violation of women's reproductive and health rights, as well as children's rights".

A total of 65,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to eastern Chad since April to escape ongoing clashes between the government of Sudan and rebels in the western Darfur region, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). 
Many were being taken care of by local Chadians from the same ethnic groups, but others were showing signs of exposure and suffering from pneumonia and other ailments, said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Coleville. Relief efforts were being hampered by the rainy season.
UN officials and two members of the Chadian parliament are currently on an assessment mission to villages around Abeche and Adre to ascertain the principal needs of the refugees, he added.
Humanitarian sources said that in Darfur itself, thousands of civilians - who appear to be targeted from the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit and Tungur ethnic groups - have been displaced, and hundreds killed in clashes between the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and government-affiliated militia groups, government troops or by aerial bombings. 
According to UNHCR officials, the latest arrivals in Chad said they had been targeted by gunfire from aircraft.
In the town of Kutum, civilians said they were "deliberately targeted because they were community leaders and businessmen from the Zaghawa, Fur and Tungur ethnic groups", Amnesty International reported last week. 
According to the Darfur inter-agency group, which comprises local and international aid representatives, Kutum hospital was damaged in crossfire, drugs and equipment were looted, the town's main water source was damaged, and telephone communications destroyed. 
Bodies had been buried close to a water source, leading to the risk of contamination, dead animals and rubbish had accumulated on the streets and the public health services were not functioning because staff had been displaced, the group said. 
AI said last week it feared the death toll in Darfur could be much higher because of the difficulty in accessing the remote region and a "blackout on news from Darfur in Khartoum". 
Darfur, home to approximately one fifth of Sudan's population of 30 million people, has become Sudan's main battleground in recent months, human rights groups say. 
The SLA launched its rebellion in March to fight against "marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation" in the region. 

The Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), said on Tuesday it was ready to sign a ceasefire agreement with the government of Sudan, which is being brokered by Chad.
"Our delegation arrived in Chad today [Tueday] and is ready to sign the agreement," the secretary general of the SLM/A, Minni Arkou Minnawi, told IRIN. He said Abdullah al Bakr, the SLA army chief of staff held talks with the president of Chad, Idriss Deby, in the town of Abeche, about 300 km from the Sudanese border.
The government delegation had not yet arrived in Abeche by Tuesday afternoon, Minnawi said, but was expected shortly. 
The agreement would include a 45-day cessation of hostilities which would allow talks to take place between the government of Sudan and the SLM/A, to be mediated by the Chadian authorities, said Minnawi. Humanitarian access would also be guaranteed to the region, and neither side would be allowed to resupply arms, he added.
The rights group, Amnesty International, appealed last week to all sides responsible to end the fighting in Darfur, which is currently Sudan's main battleground. Hundreds of civilians, mainly from the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit and Tungur have been killed or injured, in what appear to be targeted attacks, and tens of thousands displaced in the last few months, it said.
The SLA was formed early this year. In a political declaration released in March, Minnawi said it had taken up arms because the Khartoum government had "introduced policies of marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation, that had disrupted the peaceful coexistence between the region's African and Arab communities". 
He added that the SLA's objective was to "create a united democratic Sudan" on the basis of equality and devolution of power. 

Average rates of malnutrition in southern Sudan have been steadily worsening since 2001 causing "a major humanitarian crisis", according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Every survey undertaken in Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile since the beginning of the year showed at least 20 percent malnutrition rates. The measure - Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) - applies to children under five who are below 80 per cent weight for their height.
Mortality rates in Old Fangak, in Upper Nile, which currently has the worst rates of malnutrition in the world, have almost doubled since September 2002. 
But while in Bahr el Ghazal there is a coordinated response to the situation from aid agencies and the UN, many areas of Upper Nile are not being catered for with feeding programmes, UNICEF said. 
This is mainly due to general insecurity and oil-related militia activity, the expense of having to fly aid into the area, and resource problems within agencies. 
"It is partly a reflection of how difficult it is to intervene, also we have to ask ourselves if it is a form of fatigue on the part of donors and agencies," said Ben Parker, spokesman for the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan. "What is regarded as normal in southern Sudan, even by African standards, is higher than elsewhere." 
Maxine Clayton, head of Action Contre la Faim - which has conducted many of the surveys in Upper Nile - emphasised the need for all aid agencies and donors to focus not just on delivering food, but also on providing clean water and health care to prevent further malnutrition. 
"There isn't going to be an impact if we just concentrate on food," she told IRIN, adding that only in the last few months had agencies begun to look at this multi-sectoral approach seriously. 
The World Food Programme meanwhile says it has been forced to cut food rations to Sudan by 50 percent since mid-July because of funding problems.

The international monitoring mission in the Nuba Mountains has suspended patrols and flight inspections in the western Julud area after the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) withdrew its monitors from the team.
According to a statement from the Joint Monitoring Mission/Joint Military Commission (JMM/JMC) which is overseeing a ceasefire agreement in the Nuba Mountains area, the SPLM recently arrested eight people for entering Julud which is under rebel control. 
The rebels are reportedly unhappy over a later decision by the local JMC commander to have the detainees escorted back to their villages.
JMM/JMC spokesman Anton Kohler told IRIN an investigation into the arrests was underway which would, among other issues, determine exactly who the detainees were.
He noted that any party was within its rights to suspend participation in the patrols if it was not satisfied. The patrols throughout the JMC's five sectors in the Nuba Mountains are made up equally of SPLM, Sudanese government and international representatives.
Without the SPLM, the patrols could not be neutral, the mission pointed out.
The JMC headquarters in Julud would act as a liaison office with the SPLM until the situation was resolved, Kohler told IRIN. It is currently staffed by international monitors as no government or SPLM representatives are in the compound.
"The main effect is that we cannot inspect incoming humanitarian flights in Julud," Kohler noted. He said flights were landing at Karkar airfield - where they could be inspected - from where aid was being shuttled to Julud.
The JMM/JMC press statement acknowledged there had been some tension in the western Nuba Mountains area in recent weeks.
The JMM/JMC was established as part of a ceasefire agreement in the Nuba Mountains between the government and rebels, signed in Switzerland in January 2002. It seeks to monitor and report on compliance with the accord. 

The Sudan peace talks, which have been underway in the Kenyan town of Nanyuki, were adjourned on Saturday until 10 September to give the negotiating teams time for further consultations.
According to a statement issued by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - which is facilitating the talks - delegations from the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) had discussed procedural and outstanding matters before the adjournment.
The talks resumed on 10 August after stalling in July when the Sudanese government team rejected a draft power-sharing document that had been signed during previous negotiations in the Kenyan town of Nakuru. 
"After a series of engagements through consultations and direct talks, the parties asked for an adjournment in order to consult further with their principals," the IGAD statement said.
Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry told IRIN on Monday that the parties engaged "very constructively" during the 10-23 August session of talks - the seventh since the negotiations began in Kenya in July 2002. He said that both parties had agreed to the adjournment.
SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje said the Sudanese government had requested time for consultations. "We agreed to the request, we hope to resume in 10 days' time," he told IRIN.
The Sudanese civil war began 20 years ago when the southern-based SPLM/A took up arms to fight for self-determination.

Sudanese President Umar Hassan al-Bashir has called on the negotiating teams at peace talks underway in Nanyuki, Kenya, to conduct the deliberations in an atmosphere of mutual trust and reach a final peace agreement soon, the Kenyan ministry of foreign affairs announced.
The statement was issued on Thursday after Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka arrived home from a two-day visit to Egypt, during which he made a stopover in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum and held talks with Bashir.
According to the statement, Bashir reiterated his "faith and trust" in the Kenya-led Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiative to restore peace in Sudan.
Noting that the negotiations taking place in Nanyuki had reached a critical stage, the statement added that the Kenyan government was keen to see the peace initiative "bear fruit for the sake of stability and development in the region".
The ministry statement was issued as the mediator in the talks, Gen Lazarus Sumbeiywo of Kenya, was reported to be holding separate meetings with the government and rebel teams in Nanyuki to get them back to the negotiation table, after the talks were postponed indefinitely on Monday. The two sides have reportedly failed to agree on an agenda for negotiations.
Sudan analyst David Mozersky from the International Crisis Group (ICG) told IRIN on Friday if the Nanyuki talks ended without a breakthrough, "this does not mean that the process is dead, unless something drastic happens".
"Instead, it means that the mediators and observers will re-group, and join together to push a new strategy," he said. "What is important is that the international community stays committed to the process, and applies pressure on both parties to keep the process moving forward, and prepares more significant incentives and pressures as the endgame draws near."
He noted that the disagreement between the negotiating teams was centred around the Sudanese government's rejection of a draft document signed in July in the Kenyan town of Nakuru.
"The SPLA [rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army] is demanding that the Nakuru draft remain the sole basis for any negotiations," Mozersky said. "The government has strongly rejected the draft, and is trying to find alternate ways of continuing the discussions, without formally accepting the draft."
"The mediators are trying to find creative solutions that can somehow satisfy both parties, so that the substantive discussions can continue," he added.
The peace talks resumed on 10 August after stalling in July because of the government's rejection of the draft accord. The Sudanese government said at the time that its opposition to the draft was unlikely to scuttle the peace process.
Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN on 12 August that although his government had rejected the draft as a basis for negotiation, he was hopeful that the talks would result in a "more reasonable" draft.

Special Report on women in the South

While the international community watches Sudan's leaders edge closer to a peace deal, the average southern Sudanese woman, although desperate for peace, has more immediate concerns. 
Historic under-development, over 20 years of war, and inequalities in traditional power structures have left southern women in a precarious position - they now suffer some of the poorest quality of life indicators in the world. 
In some war-affected areas the rate of maternal deaths rises as high as 865 per 100,000 births, according to a UNICEF-sponsored study by Nimila Chawla entitled, "From Survival to Thrival: Children and Women in the Southern Part of Sudan". This compares with a rate of 550 per 100,000 births across the whole of Sudan, as reported in the UN Human Development Report for 2003. 
In addition, estimates made by a group of major aid agencies in 1998 suggest the literacy rate among women in parts of southern Sudan could be as low as 10 percent. Even among literate women only a small number have had the luxury of attending secondary school.
Apart from deprivations resulting directly from war and underdevelopment, a drastic reduction in the male population in some areas has placed additional responsibilities on many of the women left behind. 
Many southern Sudanese men have joined the armed rebellion and been called away to the front, while still others have left the south in order to gain education and training in the north, or even abroad. 
According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates the population of Bahr al-Ghazal in 2001 was only about 25 percent male. 
The women left behind, who were already largely responsible for keeping the family alive under fraught circumstances, are now shouldering extra burdens in traditional societies that give them a low status, poor access to income-generation activities, few education opportunities, and little or no legal redress.

Marriage problems
It is in the arrangements for marriage that the relative powerlessness of women in many southern Sudanese cultures can be most easily understood. When a young woman gets married, her husband will be required to pay a dowry to her family, usually in the form of heads of cattle. The union is therefore seen primarily as a material transaction between the husband and the woman's family, rather than a personal bond between husband and wife. 
The marriage establishes an alliance between the two families; an alliance which frequently makes divorce for the woman a virtual impossibility as she usually has to gain the support of her own family. Since, in the event of a divorce, her family would have to return the dowry they are very often reluctant to allow the separation to proceed.
"One of the driving cultural premises throughout southern Sudan is that of survival through the redistribution and sharing of wealth. The linchpin for this economic and social dynamic is bride-wealth," states Mary Anne Fitzgerald in a 2002 report on the impact of war on southern Sudanese women. "Thus women are hostage to power structures that are underpinned by material assets," Fitzgerald concludes.
In-keeping with their lowly status, a woman cannot seek divorce without the approval of her family, cannot in some cases seek medical attention without the permission of her husband, and does not generally own property or have an income of her own.

Education the key 
Arguably the most crippling disadvantage faced by southern Sudanese women is their limited access to education. Regular schooling is out of reach for most girls as they will be expected to work on household chores such as water collection and grinding grain during normal school hours. Not too long after a girl reaches puberty, she will become eligible for marriage, and once she is married is very unlikely to be able to attend school.
The lack of educated women in southern Sudan is particularly troubling in light of recent progress that has been made towards ending Sudan's civil war. A peaceful Sudan, particularly in the historically disadvantaged south, will need all the educated people it can muster to provide able doctors, lawyers and teachers and to foster sustainable development. 
"Invariably, when women living inside Sudan were asked what was needed to improve their lives, they cited education as the key to advancement", Fitzgerald says.
In education as in the other areas of their lives, women have been disadvantaged both by the war and by traditional attitudes. Insecurity and cycles of displacement have turned regular schooling into nothing more than a pipe dream for many children, whether male or female. 
The disparity in school enrolment between boys and girls is huge, and gets wider as one moves through the age-sets. According to the UNICEF 'School Baseline Assessment Report' for 2002, the gap between girls and boys in primary school enrolment widens from 42 percent in the lowest age-group class, to 59 percent in the highest.
However, some attempts to improve the situation appear to be bearing fruit. A UNICEF-led initiative to build and run village girls schools in Rumbek County, Bahr al-Ghazal, is thought to have raised significantly the enrolment rate of girls in primary education over the last year. Twenty-six such schools are already up and running, with another 10 planning to open their doors to pupils in the coming months. 
In an attempt to keep attendance rates high and drop-out rates low, no fees are charged, attendance is only required for three hours per day and, to prevent the arduous journeys which are so often the plight of schoolchildren in rural areas, the girls must live within 15 minutes walk of the school. 
The hope is that, after three years attendance at the village schools, girls will have a solid base with which they can continue their education in the local community schools, or maybe in the girls school in Rumbek town.
However, there are still several obstacles to be overcome before girls' education is thought of as routine in southern Sudan. Girls' families, and especially their fathers, will have to be convinced that they should be afforded equal status in education with their brothers; that it is worthwhile paying the school fees to educate girls as well as boys.
Also, if women are to eventually force their way into key roles in the administration of the 'New Sudan' they will need access to secondary education. At the moment, opportunities for secondary schooling for girls in southern Sudan are very limited. For example, although there is a secondary school in Rumbek town, it has very few female pupils enrolled in its classes.
There are signs, however, that attitudes are slowly beginning to change. Some families have realised that an educated girl can be of more value to both her family and to a future husband, as she will be better placed to bring in income and to manage the household affairs. Increasing numbers of people are also becoming aware that education of girls helps to improve the health of the family, especially in reducing the rates of infant, child and maternal mortality. 
In the village girls' school at Cai Agok location, 8-year-old Rebecca Marial is diligently practising her sums in the hope that one day she will be able to complete her education. Who knows, maybe she will become a respected female professional playing a vital role in the rehabilitation and development of a peaceful, prosperous southern Sudan.

Once a pregnant woman goes into labour in rural southern Sudan she is taking a serious risk with her long-term health. Should she undergo a difficult labour there is no taxi waiting to rush her to the nearest obstetric unit; there is no skilled surgeon to deliver the child by caesarean; and there are few drugs available to dull the pain. More often than not, she will just have to submit to the forces of nature, and hope for the best.
So, when Nyanut Deng began to experience complications while giving birth in a rural area of northern Bahr-al-Ghazal, there were no doctors to turn to. She had to endure the excruciating pain caused by a prolonged obstructed labour, and as a result suffered an obstetric fistula, a debilitating pregnancy-related condition.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), fistula usually occurs when a woman is in obstructed labour for days on end without medical help. The prolonged pressure of the baby's head against the mother's pelvis cuts off the blood supply to the soft tissues surrounding her bladder, rectum and vagina. The injured tissue soon rots away, leaving a perforation, or fistula. 
In some of the worst cases, women who remain untreated can suffer a slow, premature death from infection and kidney failure, UNFPA says.
The World Health Organisation estimates suggest there are over two million obstetric fistula sufferers worldwide, with some 50,000 to 100,000 new cases every year. 

Prevention and Cure
Fistula is preventable and is virtually unknown in places where early pregnancy is discouraged, young women are educated, family planning is accessible and skilled medical care is provided at childbirth, UNFPA said in a recent report entitled: "Obstetric Fistula Needs Assessment: Findings from Nine African Countries". 
A cure is also available. Reconstructive surgery can mend the injury; the procedure has a 90 percent success rate, and costs between US $100 and US $400. However, most women in southern Sudan, as well as in many other rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, are either unaware that the treatment exists, or are unable to afford or access it. As a result of this, many women continue to suffer this painful and debilitating condition for the rest of their lives.
Having heard that she may be able to receive some professional medical assistance in Rumbek, Nyanut was able, through the status afforded her by her marriage to a rebel soldier, to arrange transport to the hospital there. The drive, a journey of several days along bush roads was very painful, she told IRIN. 
Once she finally arrived, she was given palliative care, but was told she would have to wait for some time before she could undergo corrective surgery, as there was at that time no surgeon at the hospital trained in the necessary procedures. 
In the end, she waited at the hospital for two years before the facilities and skills were available to treat her. 
Since Nyanut's arrival some 3 years ago, there has been a modest improvement in access to surgery for fistula at the hospital. An experienced surgeon now visits Rumbek at least once yearly, and will also come if the number of patients requiring surgery reaches about 10, Chief Nurse Grace Kuria, told IRIN.
According to Kuria, there was currently one patient in the hospital requiring such surgery. Because of the dearth of local surgeons trained in the necessary procedures, she would either have to wait until some additional cases arrived, or until January 2004, when the surgeon's next visit was scheduled, Kuria said.
Professor Mayo of the Italian non-governmental organisation Comitato Collaborazione Medica (CCM), a group that is heavily involved in the work of the hospital, told IRIN some efforts were underway to train local surgeons to perform both caesarean sections to prevent fistula, and to carry out the reconstructive fistula surgery. 
Mayo estimated that between 100 and 200 health centres with the appropriate facilities and skilled staff would be required to deal with the problems of obstructed labour across the whole of southern Sudan. The scale of the challenge becomes clear if one considers there are currently around 10 such centres, and the training programme for fistula surgeons takes around 3 years to complete, Mayo told IRIN. 

Education crucial
While establishing well-equipped clinics and training surgeons requires significant investment in time and resources, it is possible to make relatively fast improvements in simple preventive strategies by improving health education, and in providing basic assistance to women during pregnancy and childbirth.
Postponing the age of marriage and delaying childbirth can significantly reduce the risk of obstructed labour, UNFPA says. In addition, better education for women and their families about he dangers of child birth and pregnancy are 'crucial', it states.
Attempts to improve the situation in the rural areas around Rumbek have involved the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services, developed as a partnership between the local communities and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The MCH aims to work, in part, through Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and community health workers operating out of local Public Health Care Units (PHCUs). These workers are involved in disseminating information on maternal health, on nutrition, and on safe delivery practices. It is also hoped that TBAs should play a key role in helping women experiencing obstructed labour to reach a hospital, wherever this is possible. 
Nyantoch Pouric, a TBA working at the PHCU in Amer village told IRIN that women from the nearby area would normally come to her health unit for assistance in delivering their babies. 
If, however, a woman found herself experiencing a difficult labour in her home, the TBA would travel through the bush to attend her. She told IRIN she had been faced on at least two occasions with a labour which she had neither the expertise nor the equipment to deal with, and had sent the women to Rumbek hospital, located about one hour's drive away. Transport from the village was scarce, however, and the women had had to be carried to the hospital while in labour, she said. 
In addition to physical pain, women suffering from fistula sometimes undergo the psychological trauma of being shunned by their community, rejected by their husbands and blamed for their condition. 
"If she had gone back home with this problem she would have been an outcast because people think something strange has happened to her. She would have been abandoned," a local health worker, speaking about Nyanut's case, told IRIN. 
Without any family support, without an income of their own, and without many marketable skills, this leaves many of the women in a desperate position. Some, despite their condition, are forced to turn to sex work to survive, further accentuating their social and physical vulnerability, according to UNFPA.
Because she is now cured Nyanut would be accepted back into her community if she were to return, but has decided to stay at the hospital. She has now become a valuable member of the hospital staff, and although she is living apart from her three children, she says she is happy at the hospital and has no plans to leave.

Despite being convicted of no crime Mary Deng [not her real name] sits gloomily in the women's section of Rumbek prison, south Sudan. She has not been put on trial and she is not awaiting trial. In fact, she has not even been arrested. She has been imprisoned merely as a result of asking for a divorce - a divorce from a husband who is in fact dead.
Mary was detained by a customary 'chiefs' court' in an attempt to force her to change her mind and retract her divorce request. If, after seven days imprisonment, she still insisted on a divorce, she had been told she would be returned to the prison for seven days more, Gabriel Giet, the manager of Rumbek prison told IRIN.
"This is exactly torture. This is physical torture. Even if she changes her mind later it is not a voluntary thing. It is totally out of place and should not have been done by the court," Monyluak Kuol, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) project officer in Rumbek and a former judge, told IRIN. 
Mary is languishing in the prison as a result of resisting the customary practice by which a married woman, in the event of her husband's death, becomes the de facto wife of her brother-in-law. This tradition (the levirate) is designed to ensure that when a man dies before fathering a child, his name and the name of his lineage survives through the sons his brother sires in his name.
Without an officially sanctioned separation the woman is still considered as the wife of the dead man, and as such, is also considered to be the 'property' of his family, Afaf Ismail Ibrahim, a lawyer at the Bahr al-Ghazal Women's Legal Centre in Rumbek, told IRIN.
"The woman's opinion is not important in the issue of marriage," Ibrahim said.
International law, however, would seem to prohibit the detention of any person under such circumstances. Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which became international law in 1976, states: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law." 
According to Kuol, Mary Deng's detention was also not permitted under the local customary law, and the court had overstepped its authority in imprisoning her. 
In an attempt to prevent any future cases of this nature, a lawyer from the Bahr al-Ghazal Women's Legal Centre and a UNICEF legal expert would meet with senior judges in Rumbek to raise concerns over the grounds for her imprisonment, according to UNICEF.

Mother and child imprisonment
While Mary may be the victim of some harsh treatment from the local courts, at least she has not found herself struggling to care for children while in jail - her husband had died before she had been able to bear any children.
This is not true of most of the women inmates. Of the 19 women doing time in Rumbek jail, many have been forced to take their children with them, either because the children are still very young and need to be breast-fed or because no relative could be found who was willing to look after them. 
As some of the children were of school-going age, a spell of several months in jail could have serious consequences for their future. "I'm not sure the children go to the school at all. It is very damaging for them," Kuol said.

Poor conditions
According to prison manager Giet, the jail lacks food supplies to adequately feed the inmates and their children, and there is no facility for the provision of medical care. Until UNICEF provided some plastic sheeting they were all sleeping on the bare floor with their babies and young children, he added. 
"The situation is very, very bad because the prison was damaged during the war," Ibrahim told IRIN. 
For those women with young children beyond breastfeeding age, the only way to provide them with food is to work as water carriers for vendors in a local market in exchange for a small amount of food. This is the only way, Giet says, of ensuring the children get something to eat. 
According to Ibrahim, most of the detained women have been imprisoned as a result of convictions for adultery. Under the customary law operating in the 'chiefs' courts', a woman found guilty of adultery would normally be fined the equivalent of US $50, usually payable in heads of cattle. 
However, in a typical Dinka family - Dinka are the majority ethnic group in the Rumbek area - it is the male head of the household who has sole control over the family's wealth, and so most women are unable to pay their fine without the help of their husband, or other male relatives. 
In spite of the inherent inequality in this arrangement, it could hold the key to a short-term solution to the plight of the imprisoned women and children. In such cases, especially the ones where the women were responsible for the lives of young children, the local courts could allow them sufficient time to raise payment of the fine from relatives, or ideally from the husband, Kuol told IRIN.
In addition, Kuol said, a circular from judges in the higher courts to the local chiefs' courts could suggest that more investigation be carried out to ascertain the number and ages of children involved. The court could then instruct the husband, if he fails to pay his wife's fine and so spare her from prison, to take care of children above breastfeeding age. 
Since, in most adultery cases, the husband will probably receive compensation from the male offender, he could pay his wife's lesser fine out of this amount, he added.
"We even need to change the situation long-term, not just these cases," Kuol said. 

Legal loopholes and imbalances
In July, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) enacted 26 new laws, designed to govern SPLM areas in the south, and to form the core of the legal apparatus in the south should a final peace deal be struck between the rebels and the Khartoum government. 
Included among these laws there is one dealing with prisons. This prison law says, among other things, that breastfeeding mothers should not be sent to prison without exhausting efforts to find an alternative solution and that, if fined, mothers of babies and young children should be given time to petition their relatives to pay the fine, Kuol told IRIN.
However, during the drafting of the laws, it was not foreseen that a situation might arise where school-age children would be forced to accompany their mothers to jail, and so there was something of a gap in legislation on this issue, he told IRIN. 
In customary law, men are also subject to convictions for adultery, and are normally required to pay a heavier fine than the women as well as compensation to the husband of their co-adulterer. However, it is only the poorest men who find themselves in jail, as men generally have the resources to pay the fine.
This can often mean that, at the conclusion of an adultery hearing where both parties are being judged, the woman will be sent to jail for up to one year while the man will pay the fine and go free. 
"The way it is implemented should be changed so they are not sent to prison," Ibrahim told IRIN. 
According to Giet, Rumbek jail currently housed at least one man convicted of adultery, while his co-adulterer was also being held in the women's section. 

Cycles of incarceration
Ibrahim told IRIN that many of the women claim they have committed adultery in an attempt to get a divorce. It is extremely difficult for a woman to successfully sue for divorce in traditional Dinka societies, and she must enlist the support of at least her own relatives, and preferably the support of the general community as well, she said.
This support is usually very difficult to gain, as the husband would have arranged with the woman's family to take her as his wife without her consent, and would have paid a dowry in heads of cattle to her family in order to marry her. A divorce would mean they would have to return at least some of this payment.
"It is very rare for a woman to initiate divorce successfully," Ibrahim said. 
In the absence of sufficient backing, a woman may then turn to adultery in an effort to provoke the husband into divorcing her, Ibrahim said. However, she added that the great majority of these attempts were unsuccessful, and on return to her community after incarceration, many women found themselves back with a husband they still did not want. 
This sometimes led to them committing adultery once more in a renewed attempt to gain a divorce and, more often than not, finding themselves imprisoned once again. 
Fortunately for Mary Deng this does not seem to be a fate she is likely to suffer again soon. After her seven days in prison was up, she returned to the chiefs' court and again asked for a divorce, refusing to cohabit with either her brother-in-law or any other male member of his family. 
The court reluctantly accepted that a divorce was inevitable, and she was ordered to return to her father home while both families prepared for the dissolution of the marriage and the recovery of the bride-wealth, UNICEF reported. 

The rights organisation Amnesty International has welcomed a decision by the Sudanese government to lift press censorship and travel restrictions in the country, but said it would remain "sceptical" unless concrete steps were made towards implementing the directive.
Sudanese President Umar Hassan al-Bashir last week declared the lifting of press censorship and travel bans in the country and said his government was committed to granting fundamental freedoms as part of its efforts to unify the country. 
Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN that a committee bringing together all opposition leaders had been set up to work out details of the new policy. 
"I hope this will open more dialogue and interaction between the government and the opposition," Dirdeiry said. 
Benedicte Goderiaux of Amnesty International told IRIN that although her organisation welcomed any steps taken in the direction of protecting human rights in Sudan, violations were still being committed by the security forces in many parts of the country.
In particular, Goderiaux said, the National Security Forces Act should be abolished to do away with arbitrary arrests, detention and harassment - particularly of journalists and peace activists. 
"We welcome the move and hope it is a sincere step taken in human rights protection. But now, we want to see more concrete steps in this direction," she said. 
The lifting of press and travel restrictions is the latest in a string of gestures by the Khartoum government towards the apparent promotion of human rights and democracy.
It comes barely days after New York-based Human Rights Watch organisation complained about a renewed press crackdown in which the country's largest English newspaper 'Khartoum Monitor' was closed down by the state security agency.
"We now hope people will be able to travel, especially the peace activists," Goderiaux added. "But what about reopening the 'Khartoum Monitor' and the other newspapers which the government has closed down? What about releasing journalists who are still in detention?" 

Sudanese peace talks have reopened in Kenya with the government side saying its opposition to a draft agreement presented by mediators last month is unlikely to scuttle the peace process.
Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry told IRIN on Tuesday that although his government had rejected the draft as a basis for negotiation, he was hopeful that the talks - which resumed on Monday - would result in a "more reasonable" draft. 
"We don't feel that our position will scuttle the process. This is not the first draft that we have disagreed with. It happens all the time," Dirdeiry stated.
The talks to end Sudan's 20-year civil war, hit a snag in July after the Sudanese government rejected the draft agreement presented by mediators from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the Kenyan town of Nakuru. 
The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) also had reservations about the draft, but agreed to use the document as a basis for further negotiation.
The chairman of the African Union, Amara Essy, on Monday urged both parties to "muster the necessary political will and commitment for a lasting peace and reconciliation". 
"The people of the Sudan expect and deserve peace to end the trauma caused by the conflict and the humanitarian tragedies that many have experienced in the country," he said.
The Belgian based think-tank, International Crisis Group (ICG), has described the ongoing round of talks as "make or break" for the country's peace process. It said this was "the best chance for peace in 20 years", and warned that the war could become "more deadly than ever" if the opportunity was missed. 

The UN has warned of further flooding in Kassala, northeastern Sudan, as water levels in the Gash river started rising again on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of people have been affected by severe flooding in the state, after the river burst its banks following heavy rains last month. A statement from the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan warned that the assistance provided so far was insufficient to mitigate critical needs.
Any renewed flooding, it said, "will disrupt relief and rehabilitation work underway, and exacerbate needs in water, health and sanitation".
It said repairs to the Kassala water supply system were underway, but electricity had not yet been restored to most areas. 
"As of 5 August, 13 deaths and 56 injuries have been confirmed," said the report, adding that at least 8,720 houses had been destroyed and 7,120 partially damaged. 
According to the report, the situation had been compounded by the "interruption of road communication with [the capital] Khartoum for two consecutive days", which had prevented assistance from reaching Kassala. 
The UN, along with NGOs and the Sudanese government, would issue "a flash appeal" on Thursday in order to "immediately assist approximately 100,000 flood-affected people and enable agencies to replenish stocks diverted from other ongoing programme activities".
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry in Eritrea - which borders the Kassala region - has said it will give "moral and material support" to help the flood victims in Kassala. Ties between the two countries have been frozen amid mutual accusations of helping each other's rebels. 

Between 300,000 and 364,000 people have been affected by severe floods in Kassala, eastern Sudan, with damage ranging from flooded ground floors in buildings to homes being submerged or washed away, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported.
The flooding was caused after the river Gash - which runs through the city - burst its banks following heavy rains this week. Flooding caused the river to break through barriers erected in 1988 to protect the city, allowing it to take a new course right through the centre of the town.
Most of the affected were sleeping outside on high ground to avoid the water, and there were continuous reports of missing people, on top of four confirmed deaths, the IFRC said. The Sudanese Red Crescent, NGOs, UN agencies and local government officials were trying to rescue hundreds of people cut off by floods, it added. 
At least 600 buildings have been swept away and a key bridge in the city submerged, effectively cutting Kassala in half.
The floodwaters, which rose to a reported 2.7 metres, have inundated the city including the central market, the university, two bridges, government buildings, the railroad and at least three residential areas. The hospital and a boarding school in the city have also been evacuated and the offices of some humanitarian agencies abandoned. 
The water supply system has also been damaged, leaving no source of clean water, and all communication channels including cell phones remain down. The airstrip is still functioning, however, allowing relief items to be airlifted to the area. Initial needs were thought to be shelter, food and medicines, the federation reported. 
It is anticipated that the situation will get worse in the coming days as the Gash river continues to rise, fed by inflows from the Eritrean highlands, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday. There are no reports of flooding on the Eritrean side of the border. 
In a separate development, preliminary reports indicated that on Wednesday a severe storm had struck the coastal town of Sawakin, 80 km south of Port Sudan in the Red Sea state, OCHA reported. Over 500 houses were reportedly destroyed, affecting an estimated 2,000 people.

Flooding this week in Kassala state, northeastern Sudan, has destroyed an estimated 680 houses, leaving about 3,000 people homeless and killing four people.
The river Gash, which flows from Eritrea and runs through Kassala city, flooded its banks due to heavy rains which started on Monday, Guadalupe de Souza of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum told IRIN. 
On Wednesday, the situation became "critical", she said, adding that water levels in Eritrea remained high on Thursday, leaving little hope for relief in Kassala.
De Souza said there was no water or electricity in the town, and communications systems were down. A hospital in the city also had to be evacuated, while the homeless were forced to shelter in local schools. 
Three ambulances of relief items, including medical supplies, were being sent to Kassala by road by the government, UN agencies and NGOs in Khartoum on Thursday. On Friday, an air and road assessment was planned to establish the full scale of the damage and the numbers of casualties, she added.

Insecurity in Darfur, northwestern Sudan, is said to be deteriorating rapidly with widespread looting by the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group and retaliatory attacks by the Sudanese government, coupled with increased local banditry and ongoing conflicts between different ethnic groups.
SLA rebels regularly attacked and looted villages taking food and sometimes killing people, humanitarian sources in contact with the region told IRIN. On 19 July they attacked Tawila town, 60 km from El Fasher, killing two policemen and two civilians. 
Last Friday, unknown armed raiders attacked a grain bank, health unit and local market in Mado village in the Sayah area, looting food, furniture and medicines, the sources said. 
The attacks present a real threat to people's food security and livelihoods, by preventing them from planting and accessing markets to buy food, the sources added. Grain prices have increased by as much as 200 percent in some areas and livestock prices have decreased especially in Kutum, Kebkabia and Jebel Si.
Northern Kutum province has remained inaccessible to humanitarian workers for six months and Kebkabia for almost one year. According to the sources, people have been displaced in both provinces by ground fighting and bombing. 
The local authorities estimate there are about 6,000 IDPs in Kutum. Furthermore, Kebkabia is currently affected by drought and needs urgent food aid to tie it over until the next harvest in September. 
An increased military presence in the region has also led to a rapid deterioration in the human rights situation, with people being subjected to arbitrary arrests and interrogations, the sources said. Humanitarian workers are not being given clearance to visit the affected areas. 
Regional analysts told IRIN the situation was particularly worrying because there were no independent monitors in the region, nor any means of recording the widespread abuses and killings.

The government of Sudan has said that a new draft framework agreement is a precondition to the resumption of peace talks in Kenya on 10 August, the latest date put forward by the mediators. 
"If we're going to have a fresh draft we would be willing to sit down again to negotiate, but if we are asked to renegotiate the same draft from Nakuru, I think we would find it very difficult to sit with the SPLM and discuss it," Mohamed Ahmed Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya and resident delegate to the peace talks, told IRIN in a wide-ranging interview.
Ongoing peace talks between the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) reached their lowest point on 12 July when the government accused mediators from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) of siding with the rebels in the draft, which was presented to both sides in the Kenyan town of Nakuru.
Dirdeiry said it would be "unwise" to ask the government to renegotiate the same document  because "it led us nowhere". "In fact it really deepened the crisis and cleavage between the parties," he added. 
He said it was "logical" to be presented with a new draft, since one party had rejected the previous one. "This was the tradition of these negotiations, that you get draft after draft until you really narrow the gulf between the two parties," he said.
In the context of a new draft, he added, the government had a number of specific requirements. One of the main demands was that national elections should be held within 18 months, instead of after the six-year interim period as favoured by the SPLM. 
He said this would decide the power-sharing arrangements for most of the six-year interim period, and do away with fixed quotas and percentages. 
Early elections would also sort out the issue of a national army, he said, which the government wanted to be united and "reshaped" before any elections.
"If we're going to have elections after 18 months, naturally you will not need an army other than the national army to continue beyond that term, because if the SPLA is going to lose in the elections - a possibility that no-one can rule out - and if they still have an army, they can act against the outcome of the election." 
Having one central bank and one national army, as part of a "model of unity" for the six-year interim period, were essential, he added, as well as Sharia law in the capital. He said the draft had "undermined" the unity provided for in last year's Machakos framework agreement.
"If IGAD is saying that we have to suspend the unity of Sudan, then let IGAD go to hell," he said.
The draft presented in Nakuru provides for the current president to continue to lead Sudan, with the SPLA leader as vice-president until elections are held. The latter will also head a government of southern Sudan.
But Dirdeiry objected to the idea of having just one vice-president from the south, stressing that north Sudan was twice as big as the south. As Sudan was a "diversified nation", comprising many groups, there should be two vice-presidents with the second coming from another northern group, he said. 
"Just talking about one vice president, who would be a southerner, would definitely disadvantage every northerner," he said. 
He also claimed that the SPLM had been given too much power in the draft agreement, to the exclusion of other southern groups. The government wanted 60 percent of southern representatives at cabinet level to come from the SPLM and 40 percent from other southern groups. 

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels operating in Darfur, northern Sudan, have denied signing a truce agreement with the Sudanese government.
"There is no truce agreement between the government and us," Minni Arkou Minnawi, secretary general of the SLA, told IRIN on Friday.
He said the rebel group had sent a list of demands to Khartoum with a government delegation which  visited the region recently for talks with the rebels. "We told them they have to stop the fighting, and after that we can negotiate," said Minnawi. 
He claimed the government had been "continuously bombing" the area, including Adar in northern Darfur on Friday. But Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, told IRIN he had no information concerning the reports of recent fighting.
On Thursday, a member of the Sudanese opposition in exile, Dr Sharif Harir of the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance, accused the government of bombing over 20 villages in Darfur since the end of June, killing scores of civilians in the process. 
Harir, who is from Darfur and says he has daily contact with the SLA and other sources in the region, warned that if the bombing continued throughout the planting season, food shortages would become intense. 
"If bombing continues, people will not be able to produce. We are looking at a human catastrophe in the next two or three months," he told IRIN. 
While there is no independent verification of the fighting, Kutum in northern Darfur and Teinah on the Chad border have been declared no-go areas, UN sources told IRIN. 
The SLA was formed early this year. In a political declaration released in March, Minnawi said it had taken up arms because the Khartoum government had "introduced policies of marginalisation, racial discrimination, and exploitation, that had disrupted the peaceful coexistence between the region's African and Arab communities". 
He added that the SLA's objective was to "create a united democratic Sudan" on the basis of equality and devolution of power.

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

As the Sudanese peace process has reached what many are calling the make-or-break stage, many southerners who fled the country's civil war are wondering how it is going to affect them.
In Kenya's northwestern Kakuma refugee camp, there is much talk about whether there will be a peace deal hammered out between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), and whether the refugees will be able to return home as a result. For the 65,000 southerners who live in Kakuma, some of whom fled to Kenya 20 years ago, this is of pivotal importance.
But the details of what sort of peace might emerge, what rights they will have if they do return, and what kind of negotiations are taking place between the government and the rebel group remain extremely sketchy. 
As with most peace negotiations, the people whose lives are most affected by them feel they are largely being kept in the dark. 
Philip Ayuel, a Sudanese man, tells IRIN, "generally people know that peace is being discussed in Nairobi, and everybody is looking for an outcome, but we don't know what is being negotiated".
While there are some televisions in the camp, watching them costs money, making it way beyond the reach of most people. In the absence of any newspapers, this leaves radio and word of mouth as the only sources of outside information. "I hear from the BBC. I understand a bit, but not a lot," says Tia Alumda Tia. He says he's concerned about what his leaders are negotiating, but can't access any information about it. "I'm worried. I hear from the radio but we want to witness the things ourselves."
Santino Monybot, a 'chairman' of the Sudanese community, says the SPLM/A, which is negotiating on behalf of the refugees, should keep its supporters informed of developments. "We know nothing about it, we just hear from the radio," he says. "We want people to come from the SPLM in Nairobi to tell us."
After over twenty years of waiting to go home to Sudan, Monybot feels the refugees have a right to be involved. "We have so many intellectuals here who could take part," he says. "We want participation and information, because peace is for all of us."
For most of the Sudanese women in Kakuma camp, the peace process is even more distant and obscure than for the men. Deborah Elijah Agok says the majority know nothing about it at all. "No one brings us news here, and we're very far away," she says. If she has a spare moment she listens to the radio, but with seven children to look after, food to cook, and water to fetch from 6 a.m. until dark, she has no time.
Apart from that, many of the women haven't been to school and don't understand the terminology used, she says.
"We know nothing about the peace," agrees Rebecca Achol. "We don't have a radio, we are poor, we know nothing."
Mary Bosco, who speaks good English and would like to know more, says "I have no radio. I never hear news, only rumours". Only the men have the chance to keep themselves informed of current affairs, she says. "We have a lot of housework to do. Men, they just sit around talking about politics. Very few men do any work according to our culture."
She would like to purchase a radio for herself, to know what's going on in the world, but she doesn't have the 2,500 ksh (over US $30) to buy one. "I would like to know because we need to go back to our country. We have been in exile long enough," she says.
While most of the refugees agree that they would like to be better informed, they say they would go home if a national peace deal was signed.  Monybut told IRIN he would tell people to go home "immediately" because Sudan needed reconstruction and development. "The majority will be happy to go," he said.
Peter Ayiik says he doesn't have any idea what the SPLM is negotiating, but says "we have to accept it if they sign it". He would go home very soon, he says, because in Kenya he is lacking many things. "I am idle, I have no work, I can do nothing."
But others are more circumspect. Elijah Marey says he would only go home if there was "real" peace. "We would analyse which kind of peace there was," he says. "Words would not be enough."
James Young says people would not be prepared to go immediately, and that the peace talks may well yield nothing anyway. "It's not the first time they're having talks. We don't see any results. They had no success in the past, so I'm not hoping for peace."
"They might say there is peace and later it will collapse," he adds.

Deborah Alijah Agok agrees. She says many of the women, in particular, will have nothing to go back to anyway - no home, no husbands, no relatives and no means of survival. "I don't want to go back to Sudan," she says. "I saw my relatives killed in front of me. I would prefer to live in Kenya on the border so I can run away again."

The government of Sudan is considering a date for the resumption of postponed peace talks with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
"We are still consulting on that," Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN. He said a decision would be made before 3 August, which the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediators have suggested as a starting date. The talks were originally scheduled to restart on Wednesday.
The SPLM/A spokesman, Samson Kwaje, told IRIN the rebel group was ready for talks on 3 August, and that it would discuss "nothing" but the agreement presented to both sides by the mediators at the last session of talks. "We should go back to the negotiating table and discuss the same draft agreement from Nakuru," he said.
The latest session of talks came to a standstill on 12 July when the government delegation accused the mediators of taking sides with the SPLM/A in the draft framework agreement, which it was hoped would lead to a final national agreement. 
The contentious issues include the religious status of the capital, whether the SPLA should be absorbed into the national army or remain separate, and whether the country will be run by separate administrations - northern and southern - during the interim period. 
"By giving southern Sudan 50 percent of the oil revenues, the vice-presidency, 38 percent of the council of states, and a third of parliament, the IGAD document has not left much to other groups," Dirdeiry said in an interview with The East African newspaper. "But considering that southern Sudanese represent between 20 and 25 percent of the population, this means that if the document is endorsed, the region would benefit at the expense of other regions."
"The only way out is to throw out the IGAD document, get back to the Machakos Protocol and base the drawing up of a peace agreement on it," he said.
The head of the SPLM/A, John Garang, reiterated on Wednesday on Kenyan Television that it was time to reach a political agreement. "What is the alternative if they reject the document? The alternative is to go back to war. And absolutely that is a bad alternative," he said.
Despite the impasse, the government on Monday reaffirmed its support for the Kenyan-led IGAD mediation process, stating that it was "capable of achieving peace" in Sudan.

(IRIN, Nairobi, 21 July 2003) - The Sudanese government on Monday reaffirmed its support for the Kenyan-led Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediation process, stating that it was "capable of achieving peace" in Sudan.

During talks in Kenya with President Mwai Kibaki, Sudanese special envoy, Dr Ghazi Salahuddin, also reiterated his confidence in Kenya's ability to continue brokering the talks, according to a statement issued by the Kenyan government. 

Meanwhile, uncertainty prevails regarding the date for the resumption of talks, scheduled to restart on Wednesday. According to media reports over the weekend, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said the talks might be postponed to allow the parties more time to prepare. 

Spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA/M) Samson Kwaje told IRIN his movement was ready for negotiations on 23 July, "or on any other date". He said he was waiting for the IGAD mediators to contact the movement to finalise the date.

The latest session of talks came to a standstill on 12 July when the government delegation accused the mediators of taking sides with the SPLM/A in a draft framework agreement presented to both sides. 

The Sudan Council of Churches has called on the parties to return to the negotiating table without preconditions. It also urged the government to reassure its citizens and the international community that it will continue to negotiate in good faith. It called on Arab countries to stop interfering in the peace process. 

"We take this opportunity to register our concern about the negative interference of some Arab countries such as Egypt in Sudan's affairs," it said in a statement.

Egyptian Prime Minister Dr Atif Ubayd, who arrived in Sudan on Saturday for meetings of the Joint Sudanese-Egyptian High Committee, reiterated that Egypt's "prime and only objective was the territorial integrity and unity of Sudan, and the ending of conflict between the people of one country". He also reaffirmed Egypt's support for the IGAD mediating process. 
 
 
 
 

Time for sides to prove commitment to peace - US envoy

(IRIN, Nairobi, 18 July 2003) - The Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) can resolve their differences within a matter of weeks if both sides are genuinely interested in peace, former US senator John Danforth told reporters in Nairobi on Friday.

"It's not enough to make verbal statements," said Danforth, the US peace envoy to Sudan. "If each side truly and in good faith seeks peace and if each side negotiates in good faith then these remaining issues can be resolved in a very short period of time. By a short period of time I mean weeks, not months." 

The most difficult issues surrounding unity and self-determination, and state and religion had already been resolved in July 2002 in the Machakos agreement, he said. 

The remaining issues of wealth and power sharing, security arrangements and the status of the capital were "not as difficult and not as contentious". The government and rebel positions on these outstanding issues were "very close" and "very solvable", he added.

"Maybe the two sides are comfortable with the status quo...They will show with their actions, not with their words," Danforth stressed. 

He added that an agreement had to be found soon, or else the current high levels of international interest would wane. US President Bush was "intensely interested" in Sudan, he said.

The latest session of peace talks being held in Kenya came to a standstill last weekend when the government delegation raised objections to a draft peace agreement, presented by the regional negotiators, citing "imbalances". 

The government said that the document was "far removed" from the text and spirit of the July 2002 Machakos Protocol, because of a basic assumption that the country would be run by two separate administrations during the six-year interim period, following the signing of a national agreement. 

The talks are expected to resume on 23 July.
 
 
 

Peace process still on track, sides say

(IRIN, Nairobi, 15 July 2003) - Sudan's warring parties say the peace process is still on track despite a number of setbacks which arose during the last round of talks held at the weekend. 

The talks aimed at ending the country's 20-year civil war ended Saturday after the government delegation raised objections to proposals contained in a draft peace agreement,  citing "imbalances". The draft is a working document, presented to the sides by the negotiators, which is expected to lead to a final peace accord in August.

After "careful examination" of the proposals, a government statement said it had concluded that the document was "far removed" from the text and spirit of the July 2002 Machakos Protocol, which is considered the basic cornerstone of the peace process.

Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry told IRIN the draft had "taken sides" with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 

"The draft is formulated on the basic assumptions that the country will be run by two separate administrations during the interim period," Dirdeiry told IRIN. "This is against the spirit and the letter of the Machakos Protocol. Unity is the underlying assumption and parties should work towards achieving unity at the end of the [six-year] interim period."

He stressed however that the government was keen on negotiating a "more balanced" draft.

For his part, SPLA/M spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN his movement would consider the draft proposals, even though some of its own key demands had been left out. 

"The draft does not belong to us or to the government," he said. "We also have our own reservations about it. But we believe it is a good basis for negotiations with the government."

The talks are expected to resume on 23 July, during which time mediators from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will hold a series of wide-ranging discussions on the issues. 

Meanwhile, a number of Sudanese civil society groups which have been supporting the IGAD peace initiative have urged the international community - and specifically the African Union (AU) - to exert pressure on both parties to continue their dialogue. 

"The history of Sudan is unfortunately full of many aborted peace initiatives and dishonoured agreements," the South African-based New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs Network (NESI-Network) said in a statement. 

"We, as civil society and faith based groups, denounce any moves to abandon or derail the ongoing IGAD peace initiative and dishonour the agreements already made."
 
 
 

Gov't urges AU to support peace process

(IRIN, Nairobi, 10 July 2003) - The government of Sudan has appealed to the African Union to actively support the ongoing peace process between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), a diplomatic source told IRIN.

"Most member countries are not following the process," Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN. "As well as financial support, we want moral, political and diplomatic support."

On Wednesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismael put forward a proposal at an AU meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, to form a committee aimed at following up on peace efforts in Sudan. 

Dirdeiry noted that the Arab League had become "very much involved" in the peace process, and Sudan wanted "similar commitments" from the AU. 

"We just want the AU to get more involved in supporting peace," he said.

On the sidelines of the AU meeting, the foreign ministers of IGAD members - Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda - who met on 8 July, agreed on the need "to enhance the support of African countries to the IGAD led-peace process", but did not specify how. 
 
 
 

Kenya - Sudan: WFP resumes operations at Lokichokkio base

(IRIN, Nairobi, 16 July 2003) - The UN'S World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday said it had resumed food deliveries to south Sudan from its main air base at Lokichokkio in northwestern Kenya, after eight weeks of disruption caused by heavy floods. 

In a statement, the agency said it had been forced to relocate its south Sudan food operations to Eldoret, western Kenya in May when a key supply bridge was swept away by the floods.

With the help of the Kenyan authorities, WFP said it had now been able to construct a diversion through which food and fuel trucks were now being hauled over the steep riverbanks by a bulldozer.

"Since the distance from Eldoret to airdrop zones in southern Sudan is longer and therefore, more costly, WFP did everything possible to resume air operations in Lokichokkio as soon as possible, and to ensure the most vulnerable people in southern Sudan continued to be fed," the statement said.

Amnesty urges human rights component in peace process

(IRIN, Nairobi, 16 July 2003) - The human rights group Amnesty International has called for a human rights component in the ongoing Sudanese peace process if lasting and sustainable peace is to be achieved throughout the country.

"Unless human rights for all become a full component of a forthcoming agreement crucial for the future of Sudan, peace will not be sustainable," the organisation said in a new report released on Wednesday.

The report entitled "Sudan: Empty Promises? Human Rights Violations in Government Controlled Areas", said people in government-controlled areas "continued to suffer violations of their human rights, rooted in the same issues of discrimination and injustice that fuelled the war in the south".

"The government of Sudan has made many gestures hinting at greater openness and promotion of human rights in areas it controls. But too often positive rhetoric has not been converted into concrete action in favour of human rights," Amnesty said. 

The authorities in Khartoum have denied claims of gross human rights violations, citing as proof the recent removal of Sudan from a list of countries under scrutiny.

Sudan's human rights status was raised at the UN annual Human Rights Convention in Geneva in April this year. The vote meant there would no longer be a special UN rapporteur to monitor and report on human rights violations in the country.

[For full Amnesty International report click here: 
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR540362003]
 

Peace process still on track, sides say

(IRIN, Nairobi, 15 July 2003) - Sudan's warring parties say the peace process is still on track despite a number of setbacks which arose during the last round of talks held at the weekend. 

The talks aimed at ending the country's 20-year civil war ended Saturday after the government delegation raised objections to proposals contained in a draft peace agreement,  citing "imbalances". The draft is a working document, presented to the sides by the negotiators, which is expected to lead to a final peace accord in August.

After "careful examination" of the proposals, a government statement said it had concluded that the document was "far removed" from the text and spirit of the July 2002 Machakos Protocol, which is considered the basic cornerstone of the peace process.

Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry told IRIN the draft had "taken sides" with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 

"The draft is formulated on the basic assumptions that the country will be run by two separate administrations during the interim period," Dirdeiry told IRIN. "This is against the spirit and the letter of the Machakos Protocol. Unity is the underlying assumption and parties should work towards achieving unity at the end of the [six-year] interim period."

He stressed however that the government was keen on negotiating a "more balanced" draft.

For his part, SPLA/M spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN his movement would consider the draft proposals, even though some of its own key demands had been left out. 

"The draft does not belong to us or to the government," he said. "We also have our own reservations about it. But we believe it is a good basis for negotiations with the government." 

The talks are expected to resume on 23 July, during which time mediators from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will hold a series of wide-ranging discussions on the issues. 

Meanwhile, a number of Sudanese civil society groups which have been supporting the IGAD peace initiative have urged the international community - and specifically the African Union (AU) - to exert pressure on both parties to continue their dialogue. 

"The history of Sudan is unfortunately full of many aborted peace initiatives and dishonoured agreements," the South African-based New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs Network (NESI-Network) said in a statement. 

"We, as civil society and faith based groups, denounce any moves to abandon or derail the ongoing IGAD peace initiative and dishonour the agreements already made."
 

Possible cut in food rations

(IRIN, Nairobi, 14 July 2003) - The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday that food rations in some areas of Sudan may have to be cut by 50 percent due to a lack of funding.

"We are looking at a serious break in food supplies in the next few weeks, at the end of August or in early September," said Ronald Sibanda, WFP Sudan Country Director. "And if that happens, we may be forced to cut the ration by 50 percent."

For the second consecutive year, the harvest in Sudan has been badly affected by drought. This comes on top of the "hunger gap" period in June and July, when food stocks in Sudan traditionally run low before the harvest in September and October. 

An extra half a million Sudanese would require food aid in the coming weeks, said WFP, on top of 1.5 million people who are estimated to be in need of emergency food aid in southern Sudan and a further 1.7 million people in the north of the country.

High malnutrition rates were also likely to persist even after the harvest, unless health and hygiene education was increased and access to safe water and health facilities provided.

In April this year, WFP appealed for US $130 million to provide food to about 3.2 million people in Sudan, but only US $40 million has been received. 
 
 

Watchdog criticises government's media policy

(IRIN, Nairobi, 14 July 2003) - An international media monitoring organisation has criticised the Sudanese government's press policies, accusing Khartoum of using a wide array of repressive tools in its attempts to control the media in the country. 

The Denmark-based International Media Support (IMS) said in a report that most people living in the north, including the capital Khartoum, had little or no access to independent information on the "terrifying humanitarian costs" of the ongoing civil war in the south of the country. 

"This severe shortage of information prevented any serious public debate even on less controversial, non-military matters," the report said. 

For example, it said, the war had driven more than 1.5 million people to the greater Khartoum area, but through direct censorship, media organisations in the north had generally been prevented from covering the real implications of this enormous shift in population patterns.

"There is no independent electronic media in Sudan nor any signs that this will be allowed in the near future," the report said. "All print media are subject to a publishing licence, issued by the National Press Council (NPC). The secretary general of the NPC is appointed by the president of the republic." 

However, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, dismissed the report, saying his country enjoyed greater media freedom compared to many countries in Africa and the Middle East. 

He noted that Sudan currently had only one official government newspaper out of at least 20 others, most of which were independently-owned. "Before the current government came to power, there was only one official newspaper in Sudan. Now there is no room for such criticisms," he told IRIN.

Meanwhile, a Sudanese court has reportedly cancelled the licence of the English-language 'Khartoum Monitor' for alleged misinformation. Two journalists were jailed until fines were paid for their release. The paper has been suspended several times for publishing stories related to human rights, slavery and freedom of expression.

[Click here for full IMS report:  http://www.i-m-s.dk/pic/Sudan%20report%20-%20July%202002.pdf ]
 
 

Peace conference resolves to stop cattle rustling

(IRIN, Nairobi - 14 July 2003) - A peace conference held earlier this month between the Nuer and Dinka communities in south Sudan has resolved to stop ongoing cattle rustling in Western Upper Nile and eastern Bahr el Ghazal.

The peace and reconciliation conference, known as Wunlit-2, noted that soldiers affiliated with both the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) were involved in the cattle rustling, said Victor Lugala, communications officer with the New Sudan Council of Churches, which facilitated the meeting

The estimated 100 participants who gathered in Thiet, Bahr el Ghazal, from 5-12 July, resolved to establish joint police posts in border areas to monitor incidences of cattle rustling. They also agreed on measures to arbitrate in cattle disputes.

"The new dimension is that soldiers are involved in the cattle rustling now, whereas before it was civilians," Lugala told IRIN. "They want the rebel groups to restrain their soldiers."

Both communities noted that some of the Nuer camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Dinka-dominated Bahr el Ghazal were being used as hiding places for the thieves, he added. Participants recommended that the Nuer IDPs, who number about 30,000, should return to their homes in Western Upper Nile.

The meeting was a follow-up to Wunlit 1 in 1999, when representatives from the Nuer and Dinka communities agreed to a cessation of hostilities, and resolved to live peacefully together after years of strife.

"The most significant thing about the conference is that Wunlit 1 has not collapsed - people were very optimistic," Lugala commented. On top of that, both sides reported that there was "relative peace" and freedom of movement in the region, and both communities were sharing grazing lands and fishing grounds, he said.

Wunlit 1 followed eight years of ethnic violence between the two communities, which resulted from a rebellion within the Dinka-dominated SPLM/A, led by a member of the Nuer community, Riek Machar. 

Several of the new resolutions had also been part of the Wunlit 1 agreement, said Lugala, but had not been implemented since 1999. Local authorities had been unable to train police and set up border courts with their meagre resources, he added. 

Two peace councils, one from each community, are monitoring the agreement.
 

An NGO survey of rebel-controlled Abyei county has found that there are no health services available to a population of about 32,000 people, forcing them to walk for between two and three days to access medical care.
About 60 percent of people relied on traditional healers and "spear masters" who performed witchcraft, the Irish charity GOAL reported, with about 20 percent opting for formal health care in Abyei town, where there is a hospital, or neighbouring Twic county, which has primary health clinics.
A lack of money and the distance involved determined where people went, GOAL reported, adding that those who were unable to walk had to be carried on stretchers.
Community leaders had set up "emergency health posts" in rebel-held Abyei three years ago, but there were no medicines and no salaries available which meant they were unsustainable, GOAL programme officer Martina Collins, told IRIN. 
Malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, respiratory infections, malnutrition and measles were the main causes of mortality in the area. Two thirds of people had no blankets and slept around fires, exposing themselves to mosquitos and malaria as the fires died down and the smoke - which acts as a repellant - thinned out, GOAL reported.
Despite a food surplus in the region, almost one quarter of the children surveyed appeared to be malnourished. This was due to a poor diet of sorghum, lacking protein content, which young children were being fed from when they stopped breast feeding, said Collins. 
There was also no immunisation available for children apart from polio. The only children who had been immunised - eight out of 116 surveyed - were returnees from northern Sudan. 
Abyei has suffered several decades of conflict between the Ngok Dinka in the south and the Misseriya Arabs to the north. Although it has been peaceful since late 2002, thousands of Dinka remain displaced. Five camps in government-controlled northern Abyei house an estimated 70,000 people, with a further 50,000 scattered throughout the province of Bahr el Ghazal. 
The Abyei Community Action for Development (ACAD), a local NGO, estimates that 1,300 households have returned to southern Abyei so far this year, while another 750 people are expected within the next week. The returnees, mostly from Khartoum, were visibly better off than local people who had not been displaced, Reuben Haylett, a medical coordinator with GOAL, told IRIN. 
Many others who had returned, had chosen not to stay due to the lack of services, and moved on to neighbouring Twic county or to the IDP camps in northern Abyei, Deng Mading, director of ACAD, told IRIN. 
A regional conference held in Agok, Abyei county, in early June expressed "outrage at the subhuman conditions" in which the IDPs were living.
The over 700 conference participants - no government representation was present - called on the international community to guarantee "free movement and adequate protection and security" for the repatriation of the IDPs. They also asserted that they were "part and parcel" of southern Sudan and identified the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) as their "legitimate representative" in any negotiations with the government.
The status of Abyei is currently one of the most contentious issues in negotiations for a national peace agreement in Sudan. The SPLM/A insists on the right to hold a referendum in Abyei on whether to join southern Sudan. In theory, this would precede the main southern referendum, on secession, to be held six and a half years after a peace agreement is signed. The government has so far insisted that Abyei is a local issue and does not require negotiation with the SPLM/A. 

Humanitarian agencies have expressed alarm over what they describe as the deteriorating food security situation in parts of southern Sudan. They have appealed for urgent donor support to save the lives of thousands of children who are at risk.
World Vision International on Tuesday said it had launched two emergency supplementary feeding clinics in Bahr el Ghazal, southern Sudan. The intervention followed a nutrition survey conducted in mid May in Gogrial, one of the seven counties in the province, which found that over 5,000 out of 21,000 children were severely malnourished.
The agency has called for urgent funds to start therapeutic feeding clinics for the most vulnerable children. "What we have now will only stretch for a few weeks - the number of children is overwhelming," World Vision's officer on the ground, Ann Njenga, said. 
The Warrap and Thiet areas of neighbouring Tonj County are suffering similar food shortages and malnutrition, according to World Vision. "Most families have nothing at all. If no intervention is made, they will perish," Njenga said. "With the weak state of most children, any disease can easily kill them. It will be fatal if measles or malaria strikes." 
A separate nutritional survey carried out by the Irish charity GOAL in Twic County also confirmed the worsening situation. A draft report on the survey has indicated a growing number of admissions at feeding centres, reflecting acute malnutrition rates within the local Dinka community. 
The draft report attributed the food crisis in the area to a combination of factors, ranging from insecurity to erratic rainfall, resulting in lower crop yields. The recent influxes of IDPs and returnees had also placed considerable pressure on household food consumption, the report said.
Reuben Haylett, GOAL's medical coordinator for southern Sudan, told IRIN that his agency wanted to open an additional supplementary feeding centre in the county.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday it had successfully delivered a substantial amount of seeds and tools by road to more than 10,500 households in a previously inaccessible rebel-held territory in southern Sudan. 

The FAO said it had distributed about 130 tonnes of sorghum, maize, sesame, cowpea, groundnut and vegetable seeds to various parts of the Nuba Mountains controlled by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
Farmers also received some 13,400 agricultural tools, including hoes, axes, machetes and sickles, to support the resettlement of returnees and boost food security in the region, the statement said.
The delivery of the urgently needed agricultural aid to the disputed region was made possible by an internationally monitored ceasefire agreement signed between the Sudanese government and the SPLA/M in January 2002, it added. 
Anne Bauer, the FAO's director for emergency operations and rehabilitation, said the operation was "a real breakthrough for people who have been living under insecure and extreme conditions" in the Nuba Mountains. "This project will make farmers and their families less dependent on food aid and could be a contribution to peace and stability in the region," she said in the statement.
The FAO said it had also distributed about 154 tonnes of local crop seeds and more than 16,000 hand tools to an estimated 12,500 displaced families and returnees in areas controlled by the Sudanese government. "In total, the delivery of seeds and tools is expected to result in the production of 8,200 tonnes of food in 2003, and to improve livelihoods and food security - a contribution to peace," the statement said.
The Nuba Mountains region, geographically located in northern Sudan, but whose people have identified with the SPLM/A struggle, has been a zone of conflict since 1985. 
As a result of the war, a large part of the region's population has been forced off the plains and is living in insecure and precarious conditions, cultivating the limited agricultural land on the hills.

A peace conference held in North Bor County, Upper Nile, attended by over 500 delegates, has proposed "a pathway" for peace in the region. 
The All Upper Nile Peace Conference, which was attended last month by representatives from 25 out of the region's 30 administrative areas, recommended that a regional peace committee be formed to continue the peace building process through the holding of peace dialogues. In particular, a Nuer peace and reconciliation conference was recommended in Pangak.
Consensus was also reached on the importance of strengthening local governance in the region, especially in the areas of law enforcement, including the judiciary, the police, prisons and local chiefs' courts. 
"The long march for peace and reconciliation in Upper Nile has started in earnest notwithstanding the hurdles and blockages on its way," said a press statement released by the conference participants. "The remaining challenge therefore, is the consolidation of this process through follow-up actions and activities that will enhance confidence and trust between the people and between the leaders."
The people of Upper Nile wanted peace, security and "a return to harmonious relationships between communities", the statement said. "A a time when Upper Nile region appears to be slipping behind the progress being made at the IGAD-sponsored peace negotiation process, this peace conference has given encouragement, direction and hope to the people of Upper Nile for the achievement of security, unity and peace."
The conference also identified the root causes of the local conflicts, some of which span 20 years: competition among the political and military elite; competition over natural resources; child abduction and cattle rustling; displacement of children due to war; and the erosion of formal state authority.
It was attended by delegates from different political and military factions residing in rebel-controlled areas, the government of Sudan, civil society, the diaspora, chiefs, the Anyuak king, the diplomatic corps, donors, NGOs and the US-led Civilian Protection Monitoring Team.

The US must make a clear commitment to its relationship with Sudan and to remaining closely involved in a post-agreement phase involving the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), says leading think-tank, International Crisis Group (ICG).
A report entitled "Sudan Endgame" says that commitments to the US-Sudan bilateral relationship are "the glue without which a deal is unlikely to stick". 
All international observers must coordinate the phased lifting of punitive measures against Sudan and the provision of financial and political benefits for the country, says ICG. But the US, in particular, must make the conclusion and implementation of a peace agreement a precondition to improved relations.
The latest stage of peace talks between the government and the SPLM/A rebel group, began in Nakuru, Kenya, on Sunday. A draft framework agreement is expected to be produced by the end of the talks, on which the Kenyan mediators will seek agreement by mid-August.
The mediators to the talks, led by Lazarus Sumbeiywo, must focus on developing proposals to make unity attractive to southern voters, but with racially restructured governing arrangements that promote equal rights and opportunities, says ICG. "A minimalist deal can be reached that stops the war for now and puts the South on a fast tack to independence. However, such an agreement likely would be systematically undermined by key actors in the ruling party in Khartoum and thus lead to the resumption of war."
Other recommendations before the mediators are a proposal for an enclave around areas of Khartoum where all religions will have equal standing; that southerners receive one-third representation in the civil service, the cabinet, and the Lower House, and 40 percent in the Upper House; a rotating presidency between the government and the SPLM/A; and a single fiscal and monetary policy. 
On the three disputed areas, ICG says that unity should be prioritised by setting up a joint administration between the southern and central governments for Abyei, until a referendum is held, and measures of autonomy granted to both Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains.
ICG cautions against imposing "artificial deadlines" on the parties at the talks, saying that the mediators should be flexible enough to allow an extension of time if one or both parties are not ready to finalise an agreement.
To access the report see www.crisisweb.org

A two-day meeting is due to begin on Wednesday in Washington to continue planning for a post-war period in Sudan, when expanded humanitarian assistance will be available to the country.
The meeting, to be hosted by the US State Department, will bring together representatives from the government of Sudan, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), donors and the United Nations.
A Joint Planning Mechanism (JPM), which is co-chaired by the government and the SPLM/A, has been mandated to assist both sides to assess needs, develop priorities and draw up action plans for implementation. The Washington meeting follows two others held in the Netherlands in April, and in Kenya in May.
Priority areas for the JPM include the return and reintegration of displaced people and refugees, economic development including the development of small-scale enterprises, the building of infrastructure, rehabilitation of basic services in the areas of health, education and sanitation, mine action programmes, and the development of a "peace culture".
An agreement on capacity building and the creation of the JPM, signed by both sides on 10 May, says there is a need for a programme that provides "rapid tangible benefits" to the Sudanese in the first six months after a peace agreement, as well as long-term development. "These processes must start immediately and run parallel to the ongoing peace process," it continues.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been requested to support the JPM with technical assistance. 
The latest session of peace talks between the government and the SPLM/A began on Sunday in the Kenyan town of Nakuru. They are expected to last for seven days and to yield a draft final peace agreement by mid-August.

On the eve of what may be the last stage in the Sudanese peace talks, due to begin on Sunday, people all over Sudan are ready and waiting for "a just and lasting peace", the chief mediator in the peace process, Lazarus Sumbeiywo, told reporters in Nairobi.
A 10-day trip to government and rebel-held areas in both northern and southern Sudan - which included visists to Khartoum, Malakal, Bentiu, Juba, Kurmuk, Malualkon, Yei, Ikotos, and Rumbek - allowed him to speak to a wide range of people and to "confirm that the people themselves want peace", he said. 
"They are tired of war, tired of death and destruction. They want to return to their homes and villages. They're tired of living in camps for displaced," he said.
It is hoped that the peace talks, which begin in the Kenyan town of Nakuru on Sunday and are due to last for seven days, will lead to a final Draft Framework Agreement by mid-August.
In order to achieve peace, both sides needed to work together to change "the mentality of war mongering and negative slogans", said Sumbeiywo. 
Despite people's enthusiasm for an agreement, Sumbeiywo said he found it striking that that they didn't "seem to have a grasp of the details of what is coming, of what is being negotiated for them". 
Several key issues reportedly need to be resolved during the next stage of talks, including the makeup of the armed forces, the religious status of Khartoum, the precise details of wealth sharing, the percentage of southerners in national institutions and power-sharing arrangements, including the presidency and vice-presidency.
Separate talks, chaired by the Kenyan government, will take place concurrently on the disputed areas of Southern Blue Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains, the results of which will have to be worked into a final national agreement.

The local authorities in the Nuba mountains region of Sudan are developing plans to build 22 small to medium dams over the next two years to improve access to limited water supplies in the region.
The dams would provide "enormous benefits" to an estimated 400,000 people in the region, said Dr Ahmed Saeed, Chairman of the Policy Advisory Committee which coordinates relief to the region. 
The locally-based initiative, developed by the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organisation, is already underway with the construction of two dams in Rashad county since April 2003. "The two that are being built will give the other communities the impetus to get involved," said Saeed.
The dams are expected to significantly improve access to water for drinking, livestock, vegetable growing, and fish farming, as well as recharging the ground water table. 
Currently, women are walking for between four and eight hours to collect water for their families, after which they have to join long queues at water points. During the dry season from March to June, many of the existing boreholes in the region are totally dried up, Saeed told IRIN.
Sean White, an environment and natural resources consultant, emphasised the need for sanitation interventions alongside the dam building, as well as the judicious siting of the dams to avoid the spread of malaria and other water-born diseases such as bilharzia, diarrhoea, guinea worm and typhoid.
The initiative is especially suited to the mountainous region because of its many valleys and depressions, which are ideal for collecting rain water.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has enacted 26 new laws, called the Laws of the New Sudan, which will govern SPLM areas in south Sudan until a peace deal is signed between the rebel group and the government.
After the signing of a peace accord, the laws would be "amended to fit in with the new developments", the SPLM commissioner for legal affairs and constitutional development, Michael Makuei, told IRIN. 
He said the texts were signed into law on Sunday by SPLM/A leader John Garang, but they would not be enforceable until they had been distributed to all the relevant authorities in southern Sudan. 
The new laws cover a range of areas including financial institutions, forestry, insurance, the judiciary, NGOs, passports and immigration, policing, prisons, and wildlife conservation. Makuei said they would help to establish law and order in southern Sudan and establish good governance there.
The process of developing the laws began in 2001, said Makuei who described them as "complementary to one another".

The cessation of hostilities agreement between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was renewed on Monday until the end of September.
Originally signed in October 2002, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been extended every three months since. The latest extension would last from 30 June until 30 September, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN. 
The agreement binds both sides to a "cessation of hostilities" in all areas of Sudan, which includes retaining their military positions, refraining from any offensives or attacks on civilian populations, and not supplying areas with weapons or ammunition.
In an addendum to the MOU, which was signed in February 2003, both sides guaranteed to give notification of all troop movements and supply of combat items, to provide the locations of their forces and allied militia, and to allow a Verification and Monitoring Team to investigate any alleged military attacks.
Present at the signing of the extension, which took place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, were representatives from both the government and the SPLM/A, the chief mediator in the peace process, Lazarus Sumbeiywo, and representatives from the US, UK and Italy, Dirdeiry said. 
SPLA spokesman George Garang also confirmed to IRIN that the accord had been renewed.

The United Nations on Friday launched the first database of available socio-economic information on Sudan, with a view to assisting the humanitarian effort in the country.
The UN Sudan Transition and Recovery Database, known as Starbase, contains information on demography, agro-ecological zones, administrative bodies, security, displacement and operational agencies and programmes. The sectors included are food security, education, health, water and infrastructure.
"I hope that Starbase will be useful to all of us in our shared endeavour to bring effective and well-targeted assistance to the people of the Sudan," said the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mukesh Kapila, in a statement.
In southern Sudan the information is presented at county level, while in northern Sudan, it is at state level. So far, 11 reports are available. 
Kapila said the database would act as a central depository of information, intended to aid planning and monitoring, as well as identify gaps and help judge the impact of humanitarian and development interventions. 
"There's lots of fragmented information around," commented Ben Parker, spokesman for Kapila. "It's a chance for everyone to have the same starting point with information that has the same format, is properly edited, sourced and clearly presented."
"We hope it will avoid waste and duplication," he added.
[To view the website see www.unsudanig.org]

A peace deal in war-torn Sudan will not be sustainable if the grievances driving conflict in the marginalised areas of Darfur, Abyei, Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains are not fully addressed, the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) has said.
The current peace talks between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) were not adequately addressing all of the country's armed conflicts, the ICG said in a new report entitled 'Sudan's Other Wars'. 
"The clear danger is that as long as these groups continue to feel marginalised and their views are not represented in the IGAD process, the pull toward violence will remain compelling." 
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is steering the talks which led to the signing of the Machakos Protocol in July 2002.
The grievances of the populations in these regions had long been viewed as matters of "secondary importance", said the ICG. "There is real potential for those who feel ignored by the IGAD peace process to undermine any deal that is between only the Khartoum goverment and the rebel SPLA."
The root causes of the conflict in the contested areas of Abyei, Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains - religion, race, resource distribution, and political marginalisation - were a microcosm of the broader Sudanese conflict, the report stated. 
"The negotiations on the three areas provide an opportunity to create an important peace template by dealing with the core issues of how the country has been governed from the centre." 
Negotiations on the three areas took place under the chairmanship of the Kenyan government in March 2003.
The violence in Darfur, which erupted in February 2003, should be the subject of a separate and concentrated initiative - by the government and strongly encouraged by the international community - in order to ensure an end to hostilities, the report added. 
The next session of IGAD peace talks between the government and the SPLM/A is due to start in Kenya on 6 July.

The ceasefire in the Nuba mountains, which was signed by Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in January 2002, has been extended for the third time until 19 January 2004.
"The population in the Nuba mountains has now enjoyed freedom of movement for the past 17 months and living and working conditions have significantly improved," said a statement released on Tuesday by the Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) and the Joint Military Commission (JMC), which are mandated by the two sides to supervise the ceasefire.
The monitoring bodies said they had observed "no major violations of the ceasefire".
The statement also said the JMM and the UN Mine Actions Service had demined, opened and improved a series of roads, from Kadugli to Kauda, Dilling to Julud, various roads in Miri Jebels, and they were working on the road between Kadugli and Talodi. This had led to the delivery of "vast quantities" of humanitarian aid by the UN and other agencies, the statement said.
A group of 12 nations supporting the peace process in the region, known as the Friends of the Nuba Mountains, had indicated that they were willing to secure the financial needs of the monitoring mission, the statement added. 
Commenting on the ceasefire, JMC head Brigadier General Jan Erik Wilhelmsen said it was "clear that the people want peace and development and they believe that JMC is an important factor in the process of achieving this for the future". 

The US-led Civilian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT) has documented violations by both the Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
In its latest report, the international monitoring body said up to 30 people had been killed and property destroyed in Eastern Upper Nile by Arab militia, who are supported by the government of Sudan.
All the interviewees involved in the investigation said between 20 and 30 people were killed in the attacks in late April 2002, in the villages of Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawaji, the report stated.
In a separate report, it was confirmed that in September 2002, the SPLM/A had abducted 48 civilians from their homes 16 km northeast of Abyei - including pregnant women, children and the elderly - and looted their property.
While the motive for the abductions remained unclear, the culpability of the SPLM was not in doubt, the CPMT reported. While all the abductees had since been released and had returned to their homes - due to intervention from the UN, local NGOs and the highest levels of the SPLA and government - they had all lost considerable property, it said. 
"The SPLM/A must assume responsibility for the actions of its officials," the CPMT stressed.
"Both parties to the Sudanese peace agreement must work harder to assert restraint and control over the people in their respective areas of responsibility," it added.

A Sudanese government official has denied claims that Khartoum is frustrating initiatives by civil society organisations in northern Sudan to discuss the peace process aimed at ending the country's long running civil war. 
Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN the allegations, contained in a recent report by the rights group Amnesty International, were "completely unfounded". The report did not take into account recent developments in which the UN Human Rights Commission dropped Sudan from the list of countries under scrutiny, he said. 
Amnesty International on Friday called on the Sudanese government and security forces to "stop harassing, detaining incommunicado and impeding" Sudanese civil society activists from discussing issues related to the country's ongoing peace talks between the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
"At a time when the Sudanese government and the SPLM are negotiating a peace agreement to end the civil war, all Sudanese must be free to participate in discussions related to their own future," the report said. 
But Dirdeiry dismissed the claims. "The report is painting a very gloomy picture of the situation of human rights in Sudan," he said. "But this is not true." 
The peace talks, which are taking place in neighbouring Kenya under the initiative of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are expected to result in a peace agreement, to be followed by a six and a half year transitional period during which south Sudan will prepare a referendum on possible secession.
According to Amnesty, the Sudanese authorities have forcibly interrupted several civil society meetings in northern Sudan, and newspapers have been subjected to "effective censorship"  on peace-related issues. 
Dirdeiry said civil society and political opposition groups, which are not officially included in the peace talks, are to be accommodated in an agreed upon all-inclusive process, but only after the major parties have signed a final peace accord.
He said involving other groups at this stage of the talks would jeopardise the process. "We are not closing the door. Other groups will be involved. But we have agreed we will involve them later," he noted. 

Children in Pibor county in the Upper Nile region of southern Sudan are suffering from widespread malnutrition in "a critical emergency situation", Gloria Kusemererwa, a senior nutritionist with Action Against Hunger-USA, told IRIN. 
With global rates of malnutrition among babies, aged between 6 and 29 months, at over 44 percent, she described the situation as "extremely serious" and "very alarming". Just under 15 percent of them were at risk of dying, she said, with many needing medical attention on top of food as they were suffering from malaria, as well as diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases. 
The World Health Organisation considers that global malnutrition rates above 15 percent constitute an emergency.
In a recent survey of 4,000 children in Lokongole, a district of Pibor county, mothers whose children were under 60 percent weight for height reported having no breast milk to give them, Action Against Hunger reported. While adults were doing better than children in general, their reduced food intake of only one meal per day meant that over 40 percent of them were at risk of becoming malnourished, the NGO said.
Food security in the area has been badly hit by a drought, which has lasted for the past two years, affecting both cattle and crops. 
The mainly pastoralist Murle people, who are heavily dependent on cattle for meat, milk and blood, had lost an estimated 50 percent of their cattle to drought, lack of pasture and diseases, Elisa Cavacece, a technical adviser with the Italian NGO Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) told IRIN. 
Despite an abundance of dead cattle, carcasses were being left to rot as people feared the meat might be poisonous. The little milk that was available was also being shared between calves and people, with the calves taking priority. 
A spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, Anja du Toit, told IRIN that food rations had been distributed to 59,000 people in Pibor country over the last three months, including 20,000 in Lokongole. 
"Food is just one factor in malnutrition. Providing food is not enough to ensure a good nutritional status," added Robin Lodge, another WFP spokesman. He said it was also necessary to provide clean water and sanitation.

In this special report IRIN outlines major developments in the peace process during 2003, and looks forward to future talks. A previous web special, published in January, describes in detail the important humanitarian issues surrounding the talks and gives background on the key areas of negotiation.
For the first time in 20 years, lasting peace in Sudan could be within reach. A year of phased peace talks under the watchful gaze of the international community has led to substantive progress on some key issues, and a final accord could, if progress continues, be no more than several weeks away. 
Such negotiating advances have already borne fruit for humanitarian actors on the ground as well as for the Sudanese people. 
Most notably, greatly improved security conditions arising from negotiations led in May to the UN system being able to operate the first cross-line delivery of food assistance by barge along the Juba-Malakal river corridor. 
In March, following separate bilateral agreements made by the UN system with the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) it became possible to deliver aid for the first time ever to Southern Blue Nile, an area which falls outside the traditional mandate of the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) Agreement, first established in 1989.
As an additional sign of the growing will to tackle long-outstanding humanitarian issues, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A have also agreed to set up a Humanitarian Coordination Working Group, facilitated by the UN, to address access and other operational constraints on an ongoing basis, the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator reported in its Sudan Assistance Bulletin in May.
These and other important gains add up to a general, incremental improvement in access and security conditions for aid agencies, and their ability to provide assistance to people in need across Sudan.
The key breakthrough on the humanitarian front had come in October 2002 when both the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in which they agreed, among other things, to allow "unimpeded humanitarian access to all areas and for people in need, in accordance with the Operation Lifeline Sudan Agreement."
The MOU also opened the door to the resumption of peace talks that, at that time, were stalled. Crucially, it included an agreement to implement a cessation of hostilities for the duration of talks, paving the way for further agreement on humanitarian access such as the resumed barge operations. 

Obstacles

However, some obstacles will still need to be overcome before the negotiating parties, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A, begin to implement a six-and-a-half year transition arrangement that, as the current provisional agreement stands, would follow the signing of a final accord.
After last year's breakthroughs made at the peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos, recent phases of the peace process have dealt with issues such as the equitable sharing of wealth and power in a peaceful Sudan, and the administrative details of the transition period.
The Machakos Protocol, which the parties signed in July 2002, included a provision allowing for a referendum on self-determination for the south and addressed the issue of state and religion, with the SPLM/A accepting the principle of a religion-based administration in the north. 
According to Cirino Hiteng, a lecturer of international studies at the United States International University (USIU) in Kenya, the talks, facilitated by the regional Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have reached a "very difficult" stage. 

Holistic approach

At the fifth session of the talks, which adjourned on 21 May 2003, chief mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo introduced the parties to the "holistic approach", as a means of placing all outstanding issues on the same agenda in order to accelerate the negotiating process. 
Previously, sessions dealt with issues individually. "When you are a driver, you will not be good enough if you continue driving in the same gear from start to finish. Otherwise, it will be monotonous," Sumbeiywo told IRIN recently. "The holistic approach is about looking at everything in totality," he added.
Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the Sudanese embassy spokesman in Nairobi, argues that the "holistic approach" is the best way to clear up all the outstanding issues in the process and help the parties move towards full agreement. 
"We have made a proposal based on the holistic approach on all the controversial issues," Dirdeiry told IRIN. "We are now at least sure of our position. We have been told by the mediators that our positions are very encouraging and forthcoming.
"We feel that that is encouraging for us and it indicates to us that we have grasped the mood and taken advantage of the opportunity given to us."
Justice Africa, a London-based human rights organisation, said the "holistic approach" was a necessary means of pressing the talks towards a conclusion, but only if it incorporated "additional elements" such as greater transparency, taking into account the needs of the Sudanese people. 
Hiteng is concerned by the possibility of a deal being struck without the explicit approval of the Sudanese people to whom, he says, the negotiating parties are ultimately accountable. "[SPLM/A leader John] Garang and [Sudanese President Umar Hassan] al-Bashir have no right to trade off without consulting their constituents," Hiteng argues. 

Negotiations

Mediators have indicated that progress on the outstanding issues currently on the table might take a bit more time than originally planned, and that the original 30 June deadline for the signing of a final peace agreement is now seen as unrealistic. Sumbeiywo has now set mid-August as the target date for completing the draft agreement.
In recent months, discussions have taken place on a number of issues, including wealth-sharing and monetary arrangements during the proposed transition period. 
Regarding wealth-sharing issues, the SPLM/A has said that, since the south had been devastated by many years of war, it would require a large share of the national oil wealth to catch up with the north. "If you go to southern Sudan, you will not believe that people are still in that stage in the 21st century," SPLM/A spokesman George Garang told IRIN. "The south must be made to catch up with the north."
Both sides are now backing a mandate given to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to draft "acceptable" modalities of wealth distribution in the country. "We are not talking about percentages any more. That has proved to be a non-starter," Dirdeiry said. "The real formulation is now based on the needs to develop the south as well as the needs of the government to carry out its activities. And this format is really acceptable," 
Another important negotiating issue has been that of the three disputed regions of Abyei, the Nuba Mountains, and Southern Blue Nile, all of which have been part of north Sudan for administrative purposes since 1956, and have not been included in the main IGAD negotiating process. Negotiations on the three areas have been dealt with separately from the main IGAD negotiating process. [For more background to this issue go to: www.irinnews.org/webspecials/sudan/borderterritories.asp].

However, some important issues are still to be finally resolved, including the location of the national capital and security arrangements during the transition period. 
A high-profile final push could lead to final agreement. Many observers anticipate that, in the not too distant future, the mediators will propose a draft final agreement that represents a degree of compromise from both sides. "The fear among the mediators is that the pressure will slacken and the momentum will die if the negotiations drag on into the final quarter of the year," Justice Africa said in a statement it issued on 27 May. 

Broader participation

Sudanese groups outside of the government and SPLM/A have begun to raise their profile during the most recent, fifth session of talks. Several Sudanese opposition parties met after the fifth session to discuss progress on the Sudanese peace process, and to seek a broader consensus on widening the scope of the talks beyond government-SPLM/A negotiations, to the broader national level.
The outcome of the meeting, the "Cairo Declaration", spelled out proposals that were designed to emphasise the unity of Sudan while also supporting the Machakos peace process. The future involvement of all Sudanese political forces in building a post-conflict Sudan has also been spelled out in the Machakos framework, to allow their involvement in a Constitutional Drafting Commission, which is to be in charge of producing the legal framework to be used within the interim period. 
"In the Machakos framework, there is a provision for inclusivity," Sumbeiywo told IRIN. "There is no point in signing an agreement, only to start another war because some people were left out. All parties to the conflict should be included at some point," he said.

Washington’s role 

The United States government's engagement in the peace process has been seen by many as key in furthering efforts to end Sudan's 20-year civil war. 
Dirdeiry said the US role in the process had been "remarkable". "The involvement of the United States government in the peace process is an advantage, in assisting parties to develop confidence between them. I believe the US still has a role to play in post-conflict Sudan," he told IRIN.
Analysts like Hiteng think that it would be in the interest of the negotiating parties to secure a peace agreement by 21 October, when US President George Bush is expected to report back to the Congress on progress at the talks. 
A slowing down of progress by that date could prompt the US government to bring into effect punitive provisions contained within the "Sudan Peace Act". The Act, signed into law in October 2002, requires the US administration to certify to Congress every six months that both the government and the SPLM/A are negotiating in good faith. 
If the government were found not to be negotiating in good faith then a number of provisions of the Act would come into effect, including the opposition of loans and grants to Khartoum, and the downgrading of diplomatic relations. If the SPLM/A were also found not to be negotiating in good faith then no punitive measures would be implemented against Khartoum. "I don't think they will allow the US to activate the Sudan Peace Act because it is not in their interest," Hiteng told IRIN. 

Way forward

As with peace processes in other areas of the globe, the building of trust between formerly warring Sudanese groups is likely to be big factor in securing a lasting peace.
With this in mind, mediators and international partners have already helped establish verification and monitoring teams in Sudan to help implement agreements on civilian protection as well as cessation of hostilities.
However, the SPLM/A has indicated that it still has lingering fears over the robustness of any new agreements. "There is no agreement which the north has not dishonoured since independence. We have been at war since that time because of continuous violations of agreements by Khartoum," Garang told IRIN. "The issue of whether any agreement can last in Sudan is really questionable."
The government sees 2003 as the year of peace in Sudan. "We are left with very little time now, and we can't afford to waste any time," Dirdeiry told IRIN. "The government is ready". 
Meanwhile, Sudanese people across the country are watching and hoping for an end to be brought, once and for all, to 20 years of brutal conflict. 

UN agencies and partners are planning to vaccinate half a million people against yellow fever in rebel-held areas of southern Sudan, following an outbreak in Eastern Equatoria last month.
"The epidemic is so far under control, but we're not being complacent. We're making sure to continue with an enlarged [vaccination] plan to stop it," Ben Parker, the spokesman for the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, told IRIN on Friday.
A new shipment of vaccines had arrived in Kenya and it was hoped that by mid-July the enlarged campaign would be well under way, he said.
So far, 24,000 people in Imotong, Ikotos and Tsertenya, in Torit county, have been vaccinated. Last week, only seven new cases were confirmed and four deaths, but unconfirmed reports were still being received about new cases and deaths around Ikotos, said Parker.
The World Health Organisation, the UN Children's Fund, Norwegian Church Aid and local authorities plan to extend the campaign from Torit county to neighbouring Magwi and Budi.
A parallel campaign is being planned for government-held areas in the region, such as the garrison town of Torit. A separate campaign was due to start in the Turkana region of northern Kenya by the end of June, Parker added, due to the threat of the virus spreading from Sudan. Ugandan authorities were also considering a similar initiative, he said.
All travellers to southern Sudan are being advised to obtain a yellow fever vaccination.

Mukesh Kapila is the newly appointed United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, and recently spoke to IRIN on the current humanitarian situation in Sudan. He told IRIN about recent improvements in humanitarian access to people in need following progress in peace negotiations, and the potential for the UN to help improve the lives of Sudanese people in the context of a post-conflict Sudan. 

QUESTION: What is the United Nation's role in the ongoing Sudanese peace process?

ANSWER: The United Nations is an observer in the peace talks and is working with the parties to help them reach an agreement. A particular role of the UN is also to help the parties to sustain the peace. We have offered our support to help them build their capacity in order to meet the expectations of the people of Sudan, of providing peace and bringing relief and assistance. We are helping both sides to prepare for this, otherwise the fragile peace will be undermined and the confidence will be shattered. 

Q: What is your overall assessment of the prospects for peace in Sudan? 

A: There is a good reason to be cautiously optimistic. We are collectively moving in the right direction and there have been many gains in the last months. However, there is no room for complacency. If the expectations of the Sudanese people are not met, there is a prospect for a resumption of the conflict. This therefore gives the impetus and urgency of ensuring that a lasting peace is achieved in Sudan. The UN is committed to assisting in any future role it is asked to play. 

Q: What is the current status of humanitarian access in Sudan? Are there areas where access still poses a major problem?

A: The good news is that we've got a degree of access which is unparalleled in the history of UN operations in Sudan. This is reflected in an extra million people whom we have been able to reach over the past year. The reopening of the Nile corridor has also significantly improved access. Since 12 May, 1,000 tonnes of food have been transported to Sudan on barges, and for each tonne, we have saved US $250 in operation costs. It means that extra dollars are available for relief to assist additional people. 
The last time that corridor was used was 1998. The agreement to reopen it was brokered by both parties, and both sides have honoured it. There are, however, problems and challenges. We still have difficulties getting cross-line access for our national staff. Getting permits and permissions to travel is still a fairly cumbersome process. There is still a lot more to be done, but I am encouraged by the cooperation from the two sides. 

Q: What are the UN's plans for assisting Sudan in the immediate post-conflict period?

A: In terms of the UN's assistance strategies, I see the following: the humanitarian activities that have been there under the framework of OLS [Operation Lifeline Sudan] will continue to be a significant part of our effort. This time, we expect to bring humanitarian support to more people than before. Access to all people in need has been difficult, especially in areas which were cut off by conflict.
Secondly, we have come up with the Quick-Start Peace Impact Programme. This is a rapid mobilisation of resources and activities that will bring tangible results for the country in order to maintain the peace. A peace agreement does not mean peace. The peace has to be made to work. 
This programme will include the rehabilitation of infrastructure, training of teachers, and developing skills so the Sudanese people can get employment. It also means supporting and developing the media, because most people in Sudan are either not adequately informed or are misinformed about what is going on. We need to create in the media the positive influence of sustaining peace. 
Quick-start activities also are to include restoring public administration in areas where this has been absent. Because Sudan has suffered many years of hunger, poverty, destruction and sanctions, this is a job that will not be done overnight. But the Sudanese people have to feel its impact in order for peace to thrive. 
The UN is well placed to do this, because it is the only organisation with agencies that have established and maintained strong networks in the country over many years. These networks, supported by the activities of OLS, can be re-tuned to build the requirements for peace. 

Q: Are these changes likely to significantly affect the OLS humanitarian programmes?

A: OLS has been a remarkable achievement in securing an agreement between the parties - the UN, nongovernmental organisations and other partners - to develop some ground rules on humanitarian assistance in Sudan. Despite ups and downs, it has been stable for many years. OLS activities will continue for as long as is required, and the principles of OLS will be given support more widely. 
However, when the peace agreement happens and we make progress towards peace-building, we have to give space to new institutions that will emerge, including the new institutions of governance to take their rightful responsibilities, so we can move to the areas of support and capacity building, which are also a crucial part of peace-building. OLS will reflect new realities and when the time comes, when all those who are part of the OLS framework decide, we should all have a big party to celebrate the success and move on.

Q: The UN assistance plans for Sudan are already moving towards post-conflict Sudan. But what if the peace agreement does not come this year?

A:  I am in the optimism business. Sooner or later, peace will come to Sudan. When this will happen, I don't know, but when it does, we will be there to sustain it. Let us not forget that a large part of Sudan is already at peace. A peace agreement is vital, but it should not hold us completely hostage and prevent us from providing motivations to bring peace. There are things we can do, things we must do, and we are starting now. We need to do things that go beyond traditional humanitarian aid. We need to prepare the Sudanese people to gain skills [they can] transfer [to others]. This is something that needs to happen now. 

Q: What does the UN need in order to continue to make its role in the peace process and development of a post-conflict Sudan even more effective? 

A: We are deeply appreciative of the support the UN has received from member states which have sustained the UN operations in Sudan for many years. In order to continue an effective role, donors need to be consistent and forward-thinking in their support for Sudan and even for the UN wider mandate. 
Secondly, member states' political support for the UN is needed to strengthen the UN's role as an impartial facilitator for all sides and all Sudanese people. In substantive terms, this year, the UN system has appealed for around $270 million for its programmes in Sudan. So far, halfway through the year, we have received around 30 percent. Donors are requested to accelerate their disbursements so we can carry out agreed programmes in a timely manner. 
We also have plans under discussion for quick-start programmes to provide peace dividends, so donors should get their own planning in order now so we can start with the peace-building after the peace agreement. Delays in funds disbursements can undermine any fragile peace that has been achieved.

Sudan has strongly denied accusations, made on Monday by the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI) in northern Uganda, that the Sudanese army is continuing to arm the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group.
The Sudanese consul in Uganda, Hasan Yusuf Ngor, told IRIN that the accusations were "baseless". "It is mere propaganda by those with an interest in derailing the peace process between the two governments. When we took action to fight the LRA alongside Uganda, it was a clear and strong commitment."
A statement issued by the ARLPI leaders said that since the second half of 2002, "members of the Sudanese Armed Forces have been delivering truckloads of military assistance to the LRA in Nsitu", including "arms, ammunition and other items". 
The accusation was based on testimonies from "six different returnees from the LRA" who had come out of the bush under amnesty in the months between February and June, the statement said. All of them had been with the rebel group for between seven to 10 years, were aged between 18 and 30, and had held ranks ranging between sergeant and major. 
"We always had our suspicions when we kept seeing the LRA with new uniforms and new guns," Father Carlos Rodriguez Soto, a key figure in the ARLPI's efforts to bring about peace through dialogue, told IRIN. "But we didn't have enough to be sure. Now, with each independent report coming from the bush saying the same thing, we know for a fact that they [the SAF] are doing this."
However, Ngor dismissed the accounts. "The so-called eyewitness reports are not even consistent with themselves," he said. "They say that a fresh batch of weapons was delivered last month; then they give evidence from events that happened last year."
The Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN that similar reports to the one compiled by the religious leaders were also available from other sources. "We have many credible, independent sources telling us the same thing, including people we ourselves have recovered from the LRA." 
"We are going to take action in a calm, measured fashion," he added. "We shall present the evidence to the Sudanese government, and request an explanation from them. We already have an arrangement within which we can do this." 
Ngor said the Sudan government was open to hearing any such alleged evidence. "We will listen, and certainly any officer caught red-handed doing this kind of thing will be promptly court-martialled," he said. 
Following a peace pact signed between the Sudanese and Ugandan governments in 1999, both countries officially renounced supporting each other's rebels. Then in March 2002, as part of efforts to improve bilateral relations, Sudan allowed Uganda to enter the south of the country to pursue the LRA from its bases there in an operation dubbed Iron Fist.
Observers say northern Uganda is currently facing the worst humanitarian crisis the region has ever seen. Food, health care, water, sanitation and shelter are all in short supply, as almost all humanitarian organisations who were working in the area have been forced out, unable to protect their staff from LRA attacks. 

NAIROBI, 18 June2003 (IRIN) - A leading UK-based international children's charity on Wednesday said it had begun to intensify its efforts to search for thousands of civilians abducted from their homes in southern Sudan since 1983 and taken to the north of the country. 

The organisation, Save the Children, said its representatives had this week met local leaders, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other stakeholders in northern Bahr al-Ghazal, to "discuss the best way" to trace, return and reunify the civilians who were separated from their families in the course of hostilities.

The names of such people would be distributed to local leaders for follow-up and further verification, additions or corrections, it said in a statement. These names have been listed in "Ten Thousand Names", a database released last month by the independent Rift Valley Institute following an 18-month study; it contains the names of 11,105 people abducted between 1983 and 2002.

According to the study, 58 percent of the missing were children under 18 at the time of their abductions.

Wendy Fenton, Save the Children's programme director in Sudan, said the research had helped her agency to "know who's missing and when they were taken". "This is a unique opportunity to sit together, discuss approaches and map the way forward. Families should know where their loved ones are and what has happened to them," she said in the statement.

Abductions of southern Sudanese civilians in the course of the country's 20-year civil war have largely been blamed on government-backed tribal militias. In response to such claims, the Khartoum government set up the Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children in May 1999 to investigate abduction claims, help find affected children and women and facilitate their reunification with their families.

The recent relative peace witnessed in the region following a formal cessation of hostilities between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army concluded in October 2002, had led to a lull in fresh abductions, and to an environment conducive to tracing more abductees and reuniting them with their families, the agency said.

Hundreds of abductees have since been traced and reunited with their families. The most recent family reunifications took place in mid-May, when UNICEF and Save the Children flew 62 women and children across the ceasefire lines to their families in parts of northern Bahr al-Ghazal, the statement said. 

"The priority is to find children and to reunify them with close family members wherever they may be. Working closely with authorities on both sides of the conflict in a painstaking and methodical way provides the best chance for genuine and lasting returns, with the rights of the abducted respected," Fenton added.

UNICEF last month urged the Sudanese government and international donors to use the latest research on missing people in Sudan as an opportunity to resolve the issue.

Government reviewing policy on GM food imports

The Sudanese government has guaranteed the World Food Programme (WFP) that all food deliveries will be permitted to enter the country for the next six months, while it conducts a review of its policy on genetically modified (GM) foods.
"The government informed us verbally that it will review its policy on GM foods over the next three months," a spokesman for WFP, Robin Lodge, told IRIN on Tuesday.
A number of food shipments held up in Port Sudan for over a week due to concerns about GM food were released by Sudanese authorities on Saturday. 
WFP, which sources and delivers most of Sudan's food aid, received a letter from the Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organization (a government body) in May outlining a ban on imports of GM food. The new regulations stated that a GM-free certificate would be required for food commodities, including grains, pulses and blended foods, entering the country.
WFP did not test the food it distributed for its GM content, Lodge said, as there were neither international guidelines calling for such action, nor international agreements on tolerance levels of such foods. "We can't say whether we're giving out GM food or not."
However, he said, in a case where a country objected to receiving deliveries of GM food, WFP would guarantee not to supply it. "If we get a directive to stop all deliveries, including airdrops, we can't go ahead with them without their [the authorities] say so."
"WFP has never pressed any recipient government to accept GM food," he added.
While the food shipments arriving in Port Sudan - which were donated mainly from the US - were being held up, WFP had continued to deliver to other areas in Sudan, he said.
Muhammad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN that requests to bring in GM foods to Sudan were being studied. "One idea that we are mooting is to see whether it's possible for the African Union to take a decision [on this issue], which would be an African decision, adopted by all of the African countries."
"We will not take a unitary decision," he said. "We are going along with the African consensus on this matter."

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reached an agreement with the governments of Eritrea and Sudan on where to open a humanitarian corridor between the two countries to facilitate the repatriation of thousands of Eritrean refugees, the UNHCR has said. 
"We have reached agreement on the location of the border crossing, that will allow the resumption of repatriation to begin soon," Christian Koch, acting head of UNHCR in Eritrea, told IRIN on Wednesday.
Describing the agreement with the two governments as an "important breakthrough", Koch said: "I am confident that we're going in the right direction and that in a short time we'll be able to fine-tune the operational aspects of the repatriation to start moving the convoys".
"We're under time pressure. We're very interested in getting some people home before the rains start so they can benefit from the planting season," Wendy Rappeport, external relations officer with UNHCR told IRIN.
Written communications from the two governments, agreeing that the corridor should be located on the Laffa-Talatasher road which crosses the Eritrean-Sudanese border, were received by UNHCR on 5 and 7 of June respectively. This resolves a key issue discussed in parallel negotiations between UNHCR and the two governments.
There has been no direct communication on repatriation between the two governments since October 2002, when deteriorated relations between them led to their mutual border being closed.
Negotiations with the governments have been ongoing since October 2002 to allow the voluntary repatriation to resume. So far, about 36,000 Eritreans have registered to be repatriated, 32,000 of whom have been verified by the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC) as genuine Eritreans, and therefore allowed to return home.
Over 100,000 have applied to stay in Sudan. A registration process is ongoing to establish how many of the estimated 340,000 Eritreans in Sudan wish to stay there, and how many are eligible to do so. Since the beginning of this year, Eritreans have to apply individually to either UNHCR or the Sudanese government to retain their refugee status, which ceased at the end of 2002.
Between June 2000 and October 2002, before the border was closed, 103,000 Eritreans returned home from Sudan.
Since the stalling of the repatriation, UNHCR has been concentrating on reintegrating those who had already returned, by providing basic services for them like schools, water points, health facilities and income-generating activities. 
"We are giving them the basic conditions to allow them to become economically self-reliant," Koch told IRIN. "Those who have come back are therefore less of a burden for the Eritrean authorities and it has made their reintegration into Eritrean society easier." 

The Swiss-based human rights group, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has expressed concern over a recent incident in which Sudanese security forces reportedly arrested a group of women activists, and it urged the authorities in Khartoum to conduct a "thorough and impartial" investigation. 
According to an OMCT statement, about five officers from the Sudanese National Security Agency (NSA) on 2 June arrested 38 activists from the Nuba Mountain Women's Association and three men who were accompanying them. The arrests came as the group was leaving Khartoum, the capital, for a women's conference for peace and development in Kawda town, in the Nuba Mountain region of central Sudan.
The officers, armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols, transported the group to the NSA offices, where they were "searched in an antagonistic manner and insulted verbally", according to the statement issued on Friday.
The NSA officials reportedly confiscated personal items from the group, including mobile phones, money, computer equipment and documents. The group was released in batches between 2 and 3 June but ordered to report daily to the NSA offices in Khartoum, OMCT said. 
OMCT said the NSA had also closed down the offices of Ruayya Association, another women's organisation in Khartoum.
"OMCT condemns the continuing restrictions on freedom of association in Sudan and the harassment of women's human rights activists," the organisation said. 
The anti-torture body urged the Sudanese authorities to guarantee respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards. It also urged Khartoum to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). 
Sudanese government officials could not be reached for comment. 
The Nuba Mountain region is one of the areas affected by the conflict in the southern part of Sudan between the Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. It is currently under an internationally monitored ceasefire. 

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has urged the Sudanese government and international donors to use new research on missing people in Sudan as an opportunity to resolve the issue.
The new information is the result of an 18-month study carried out by an organisation, known as the Rift Valley Institute, on people abducted by militia groups in Sudan over the past 20 years, who are still missing. The research puts the number of children and adults whose families do not know of their whereabouts at about 10,380.
In a statement, Joanna van Gerpen, the UNICEF representative in Sudan, said this had been "an absolutely vital initiative".
"For the first time since 1983, the true extent of the abductions has been documented," she said. "It's a huge step in helping us search for the missing children and women. It drives home the fact that they are real people with real names and stories - not just statistics."
According to the statement, the new information would make the search for those still missing "far more effective, far more meaningful, and far more hopeful".
"In our view, empowering local governments and genuine community leaders - people who know their area and feel a responsibility toward it – is essential to progress," Van Gerpen said. "Knowledge of the names, clans and villages of nearly every missing child is an extraordinary tool. It should now be possible to search for every individual by name – although it will be a massive task."

A vaccination campaign to halt the spread of yellow fever in Imotong and Ikotos, Eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, began on Sunday, Ben Parker, the spokesman for the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, told IRIN.
A total of 40,000 doses of the vaccine had been delivered by air to Ikotos on Saturday, he said, and 75 trained vaccinators had begun work the next day. Imotong town, the epicentre of the outbreak, and the Momoria camp for internally displaced people on the edge of Ikotos, were to constitute the initial focus, he said. 
The IDP camp is home to several thousand people fleeing insecurity in the area.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had ordered a further 125,000 vaccines, which it hoped would arrive by next week so that the campaign could continue without interruption, Parker added. The Sudanese Ministry of Health and WHO were also planning a parallel campaign in government-held areas, such as the garrison town of Torit, in Eastern Equatoria, he said. 
Oxfam and Norwegian Church Aid have begun the delivery of 1,700 mosquito nets to the area.
To date, 36 people in the area have died of the haemorrhagic disease. Yellow fever can cause bleeding from the mouth, eyes, nose and stomach and has an estimated mortality rate of about 30 percent. Death usually occurs within 10 to 14 days.