As the Great Powers condescendingly admonish Darfur’s guerillas to participate in the peace talks to open in Libya next week, on Oct. 11, some 22 representatives of Darfur rebel groups were stopped by Sudanese government forces on their way to a pre-summit meeting in the country’s autonomous south. They arrived in Juba, south Sudan’s capital, after they were detained by soldiers at an airstrip in the North Darfur town of Kotum for several hours. They were apparently released after Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lam Akol intervened. (Reuters, Oct. 12)
That same day, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) announced it is suspending its participation in the Government of National Unity, accusing Khartoum of failing to live up to the 2005 peace agreement, especially measures calling for demarcating the border between North and South Sudan. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on both parties to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to “resolve the situation in a manner that preserves the integrity of the Agreement.” The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is now deployed to monitor compliance with the CPA. (UN News Centre, Oct. 12)
See our last post on Sudan.
