Sudanese government and armed movements sign first peace agreement

Sudan's main rebel alliance and the national government agreed on Monday on a peace pact to end the 17-year conflict.

Members of the armed movements that make up the Sudanese Revolutionary Front - a coalition of rebel groups from the western region of Darfur and the southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile - and the Sudanese Alliance Jamis Abdalla along with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok held a formal ceremony in Juba, capital of neighbouring Southern Sudan. "We are now ready and prepared for the signing of the agreement after negotiations on all points and issues over almost a year have been completed," the head of the Sudanese mediation team, Tut Galuak, told Efe.

Hamdok arrived in Juba accompanied by several ministers. This visit comes after the Sovereign Council, the highest body of the Sudanese transition government, and rebel leaders reached an agreement to begin a dialogue on 14 October.

In his Twitter account, the Sudanese Prime Minister announced that he was going to Juba to "participate with the government delegation and comrades in the armed struggle movements in the joy and support of the peace agreement (...)".

The agreement, according to the state agency SANA, covers key issues around security, land ownership, transitional justice, power sharing and the return of people who fled their homes as a result of the war.

The agreements, divided into five separate processes in the areas of Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile, were signed by leaders of the armed movements and the vice president of the Sovereign Council of Sudan, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, representing the Executive.

Those expected to sign an agreement are: a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, the Sudan Liberation Movement Transitional Council, the Justice and Equality Movement and a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.

However, two key rebel forces: a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdelwahid Nour, and a wing of the North Sudan People's Liberation Movement have refused to participate in the agreement, according to AFP. 

Since 2003, Darfur has been devastated by a conflict which, according to the United Nations, has left 300,000 dead and more than 2.5 million displaced.

In recent months a wave of violence has spread through Darfur, claiming the lives of 100 people in July, despite a brief pause in the unrest after the Sudanese revolution of 2019 that overthrew President Omar al-Bashir.

The rebel groups that have now signed this peace agreement come largely from non-Arab communities (a minority in the country) that have always been critical of Arab domination in the Khartoum governments. These rebels fought against the troops of the overthrown Al-Bashir.

Since then it has been Hamdok who has taken over the transitional executive and made peace with the rebels one of his main priorities.