SUDAN SIGNS DEAL WITH DARFUR REBEL GROUP

Sudan signs deal with Darfur rebel group
March 19, 2010 05:40AM
Sudan signed a three-month ceasefire deal with a second Darfur rebel group on Thursday, as part of the government's push to end the conflict in the western Sudanese region before elections.

Two agreements were signed, a temporary ceasefire agreement that will get renewed as the talk's progress and a framework agreement which lists all the topics for future negotiations.

Representatives from the government and Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella group of small splinter factions, signed the deal in the Qatari capital Doha, weeks after Khartoum signed a similar accord with Darfur's powerful insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

JEM dismissed Thursday's deal, saying the LJM had no military force on the ground, but senior JEM official Al-Tahir al-Feki told Reuters his movement would not immediately act on its threat to walk out of Doha talks in protest at the deal.