Sudanese foes sign landmark peace deal in Juba to end deadly war

JUBA – The ruling coalition government of Sudan and armed opposition consortium, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (RSF), have this afternoon signed a landmark peace agreement in Juba, ending years of protracted conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the country’s restive Darfur region, Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains.

The deal signed at Dr. John Garang De’Mabior Mausoleum in Juba this afternoon provides for the integration of rebel forces into the Sudan armed forces, to form a unified national army whose mandate would only be to protect the people of Sudan.

The War in Darfur, sometimes referred to as the “Land Cruiser War”, is a major conflict that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur’s non-Arab population.

Several peace initiatives including some spearheaded by the Arabs, with its most notable being the Doha Peace Agreement, have failed with both sides blaming each other for lacking will to fully implement that agreement.

The SLM later on split into two bitter groups, with one faction led by renegade Abdel Wahid Nur, and the other by Minni Arko Minawi.

The faction led by Abdel Wahid, along with the SPLM-North led by Abdel Aziz Adam al-Hillu, have not signed the latest peace agreement, saying that the 2019 revolution which ousted long-time leader Omar al-Bashir has been hijacked by the armed.

The South Sudan, Chad, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates signed the agreement as guarantors.