Historic peace agreement between the Sudanese government and rebel groups

The Sudanese government and the leaders of the main armed rebel groups, who are part of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, signed a peace agreement in Juba on Saturday to end 17 years of armed conflict.

"The signing of the Juba peace agreement marks the beginning of a new era for the people of Sudan," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video.

The signing of this agreement in the capital of South Sudan was the culmination of a year of negotiations.

Representatives of the Sudanese transitional government and rebel movements, as well as Chadian, Catharine and Egyptian diplomats and representatives of the African Union and the United Nations took part in the ceremony.

Among the signatories were three members of the government delegation, led by the vice-president of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, together with more than ten representatives of different armed movements and the president of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, as mediator.

The UN Secretary General asked the People's Liberation Movement of Northern Sudan, Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, to take part in the peace talks, taking the opportunity provided by this agreement, and urged the Sudanese Liberation Army, Abdel Wahid al-Nour, to "immediately join" the peace process.

This agreement stipulates that the armed movements will have to be dismantled and their fighters will have to join the regular army, which will be reorganised to be representative of all components of the Sudanese people. The international community applauded this peace agreement.

The chapters of the document provide for the recognition of ancestral rights of tribes, the annulment of property rights granted through usurpation or taken away by the Al Bashir government and the right to return of displaced persons and refugees, as well as compensation for victims. It also provides for the possibility of the creation of a decentralised federal state.

At the end of August the government and most of the main armed movements in Southern Sudan signed the preliminary peace agreement which was a major step towards consolidating the transitional political process that began with the overthrow of Omar al Bashir last year.