Sudan: one of Africa’s longest wars may be nearing end after rebel peace deal
- Peace deal a crucial step towards ending 17 years of conflict in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed
- Deal offers rebels political representation, integration into the security forces, economic and land rights
Sudan’s transitional government initialled a peace deal with rebels, sparking hopes of an end to fighting that ravaged Darfur and other parts of the African nation under ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir.
The agreement signed Monday with five rebel groups paves the way to fold insurgents into the army and grant them government roles. It’s the fruit of months of intense negotiations with Sudan’s rulers, a mix of civilians who led the revolt against Bashir and military officials who once enforced his rule.
It may also decide the fate of Bashir, whose 30-year reign the army ended last year. He’s wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes during the Darfur conflict that began in 2003. The government has indicated the 76-year-old, already on trial for the 1989 coup by which he seized power, could also face the ICC’s charges.
The pact signed in the capital of neighbouring South Sudan, Juba, potentially “addresses the root causes of the wars in Sudan,” said Abdallah Adam Khatir, a social studies professor at Zalingi University in central Darfur. “If the transitional government, rebels and army implement it honestly, it can lead to a major breakthrough in Sudan’s entire dynamic.”
The fighting in Darfur – a western territory the size of France – was some of the most notorious of the 2000s. After insurgents took up arms accusing the government in Khartoum of neglecting the region, authorities unleashed a brutal counter-insurgency campaign. The violence may have cost 300,000 lives and forced 2.5 million from their homes, according to United Nations estimates.
Sudan, where the Arab world meets Sub-Saharan Africa, has known conflict for much of its six decades since independence. The Christian-majority south seceded in 2011 after waging the continent’s longest civil war against Khartoum, which pursued hardline Islamist policies before and after Bashir took control.
Rebellions subsequently flared in two southern border states. The insurgencies have been tamed in recent years, often by scorched earth tactics that caused humanitarian crises. Rebel leaders there and in Darfur have mainly respected de facto ceasefires since Bashir’s fall, hoping to finally win concessions from Sudan’s new rulers.