The African Union's special envoy for Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim, announced Tuesday that the peace negotiation between the Sudanese government and rebel movements in Sudan's western region of Darfur would be resumed in October.
Salim made the announcement after a meeting with Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, during which Salim briefed al-Bashir his consultations with parties concerned following a meeting of Darfur rebel groups in Tanzania early this month.
"The consultations were focused on the next peace talks between the Sudanese government and non-signatories of the Abuja agreement and the dialogue will be held definitely in October," Salim told reporters.
The peace talks between Khartoum and the Darfur rebels have been deadlocked since the Sudanese government signed a peace deal with a main rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5, 2006, with other rebel groups refusing to accept the deal.
Al-Taib Ali Ahemad, a high-ranking official in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, disclosed to Sudanese media that the place of the next Darfur peace talks had not been decided.
"There are several choices before us but none of them has been chosen," Ahemad noted.
Local media has reported three possible places for the next negotiations, including Libya, Eritrea and South Africa.
Salim arrived in Khartoum on Aug. 21 to conduct a fresh round of mediation efforts to bring Darfur rebel movements, totalling more than a dozen after years of division, back to the negotiation table.
During the week-long visit in Sudan, the AU envoy spent most of his time in Darfur, where he visited the cities of Nyala, Geneina as well as Zalengei, the hometown of Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nour, founder of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
Nour, who has his most supporters in the biggest tribe of Fur in Darfur, boycotted the Arusha meeting and sticks to his position that the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement should be re-negotiated, a demand which has been refused by the Sudanese government.
Source: Xinhua
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