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CIAO DATE: 04/05
Africa Action Talking Points on North-South Peace Agreement in Sudan
January 2005
Abstract
What’s happening this week?
• On Sunday, January 9, African leaders and world diplomats will gather in Nairobi, Kenya to witness the signing of an historic peace deal intended to end Africa’s longest-running civil war.
• This conflict between the Sudanese government in the north and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in southern Sudan has raged for more than two decades.
• Sunday’s signing ceremony marks the culmination of two years of formal peace talks and many years of periodic negotiations, sustained by regional and international diplomacy.
• The signing of this peace deal could mark an historic moment for Sudan, by bringing to an end decades of violence and devastation in Africa’s largest country. It could similarly mark an important moment for the entire African continent.
• However, this peace agreement does not cover the ongoing conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, where the Sudanese government continues to wage a campaign of genocide against civilians from three ethnic groups. Over the past two years, up to 400,000 people have died, and 2 million more have been made homeless in Darfur as a consequence resulting in what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Full Text (PDF format, 4 pages, 141.1 KB)
