Darfur rebels given until end of May to sign peace

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The African Union on Monday gave
two rebel factions from Sudan’s Darfur region an extra two
weeks until the end of May to sign a peace agreement they have
so far failed to endorse.

After lengthy AU-sponsored peace talks in Nigeria, only one
of the three Darfur rebel factions signed a May 5 accord with
Khartoum to end fighting that has killed tens of thousands of
people.

“The extension of the signature for those who didn’t sign
the agreement will be laid open until the end of May, after
which, failure to sign will indicate non-commitment to the
peace process and the AU will take a decision,” said Olu
Adeniji, chairman of the AU Peace and Security Council.

The two holdouts — the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)
led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and the smaller Justice and
Equality Movement (JEM) — had been under pressure to sign up
to the accord by Monday’s AU meeting in Addis Ababa.

Earlier, Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU commission,
had warned the pan-African body may request UN sanctions
against the groups if they took any action likely to undermine
the Darfur peace accord.

Adeniji, who is Nigeria’s foreign minister, also said the
AU had decided to begin taking steps to hand over its
peacekeeping force in Darfur to a UN-led operation as it agreed
in principle two months ago. But he did not give a timetable.

“At that time it was a decision in principle. Today, we
have reaffirmed that decision beyond principle and decided that
steps should commence to transfer the AU mission in Sudan to UN
peacekeeping mission,” he told reporters.

The AU said in March that it would transfer its
peacekeeping in Sudan to U.N. control by September 30.

Sudan has no objections in principle but wants to discuss
details of the handover, he added of Khartoum’s perceived
reluctance to receiving UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

“The fact that Sudan has signed the peace agreement
indicates that, as envisaged in the peace agreement, AMIS will
be taken over by the UN when the transition period is
completed.”