Sudan’s peace talks meant to obtain lasting ceasefire in the country’s three warring regions have collapsed less than one week after they began, Reuters reports the country’s government chief negotiator as saying.
Rebels have been fighting the Sudanese army in the southern region of Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2011.
Darfur has however been ravaged by conflict since 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the Arab-led government based in the capital Khartoum.
Rebel and opposition groups last week agreed to a road map for ceasefire talks and political reconciliation brokered by the African Union and already accepted by the government.
This was the first such agreement since fighting began in the southern region of Sudan. Ceasefire talks began immediately after.
“Peace talks failed because of the lack of seriousness of the armed movements to reach a ceasefire agreement … they are warlords invested in war,” Ibrahim Mahmoud, the government’s lead negotiator, said at Khartoum airport after returning from the peace talks in Addis Ababa.
The road map sets out a process for reaching a permanent ceasefire and provides for a national dialogue between the government and both political and armed opposition groups. It also included provisions for immediate humanitarian assistance.
