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An SLA member walks in Tina, north Darfur.
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ADDIS ABABA — Holdout factions of two rebel groups in the western Sudanese Darfur region signed a peace deal late Thursday, June 8, weeks after it had been agreed by the major warring parties.
Splinter wings of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said they had signed a specially prepared annex to the May 5 peace accord, pledging to abide by its principles, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"With this declaration we are committing ourselves to the agreement in the same way as the other signatories, and are hoping that it allows peace in Darfur," said a leader of the SLM/A faction, Abdurahman Musa Abbakar.
A leader of the dissident JEM faction said the final decision to sign the pact was a "historic moment" for Sudan.
"I want to invite all people to adopt this peace agreement because this agreement belongs to all Sudanese and their neighbors," said Abdurahman Adam Abdurahman Aburisha.
Only one Darfur rebel group, the main wing of the SLA, had previously signed the peace deal with Khartoum and officials from the Africa Union, which had backed the accord, had become increasingly frustrated with the holdouts.
The accord aims to end a three-year conflict that has claimed up to 300,000 lives and displaced some 2.4 million others, according to UN estimates.
(Click to Read Highlights of the Peace Deal)
Int'l Force
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The UN is pressing Khartoum to replace AU troops with a multi-nation forces. (Reuters)
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A rare high-level joint UN and African Union team arrived in Sudan on Friday hoping to
convince Khartoum to accept UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur and plan for their deployment.
Political team members were due to hold talks with the government on Saturday, June 10, while military, telecommunications and other technical experts would head to Darfur to plan for a possible deployment of UN troops, Reuters reported.
"We are here to work together to see how well we can help the people in Darfur live together in harmony," said AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit on his arrival in Khartoum on Friday.
Sudan has so far opposed the deployment of UN troops in Darfur to take over from 7,000 underfunded African Union troops who are monitoring a shaky truce in Darfur.
It had initially refused entry to the team. President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir reluctantly agreed to allow them to begin work only after days of intensive talks with UN troubleshooter Lakhdar Brahimi and other senior UN officials last month.
The team will be in Sudan for 18 days and includes the head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Geuhenno.
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