Doubt cast on Darfur peace declaration

Rebel leaders have cast doubt on the Sudanese government's declaration of an immediate ceasefire in war-ravaged Darfur.

Over 200,000 people have died and around two million displaced during four-and-a-half years of violence in the region.

The Libya-based talks are the first attempt to gather Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government around a negotiating table since 2006 when the AU mediated Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.

Signed by only one rebel faction, that agreement had little support among the millions of Darfuris trapped in displacement camps and instead triggered fresh violence, as rebels split into more than a dozen factions.

With key rebels absent from the current African Union-United Nations-mediated talks in Sirte, doubt had been cast on whether negotiations could produce any meaningful deal.

On Friday, two main rebel groups - the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction - said they would not attend.

That decision came after another rebel leader, Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, founder of a third group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said he would not travel to Libya for the talks.

JEM-SLA Unity pose the biggest military threat to the Sudanese government and Mr Nur has the most popular support among Darfuris.

Analysts earlier said without their representation in Libya, peace talks had little chance of success.

Rebel leader Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige of the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance said: "The government has already said several times since 2004 that they observed a ceasefire. They again spoke like this today. We have our doubts."

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