Sudan: The Sudanese government and Darfur's main rebel grouping yesterday agreed to sign a peace deal designed to end a three-year conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people.
However, two smaller rebel factions walked out of the talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, leaving a question mark over whether the agreement would bring a lasting conclusion to the bloodshed.
International negotiators, who have spent the past week wringing concessions from all sides, insisted the limited deal was the best chance of reaching a peace and would open the door for a United Nations presence in Darfur.
Salim Ahmed Salim, the African Union's chief negotiator, said: "In realistic terms the agreement between the government and SLA Minni is a major development. The two of them working together can make a major contribution to a return to peace and normalcy in Darfur."
The Sudanese Liberation Army faction, led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, is the largest of the rebel groupings in Darfur.
His rival, Abdelwahid El Nur, walked out of the talks early yesterday morning, along with members of the smaller Justice and Equality Movement.
Jaffer Monro, spokesman for the Abdelwahid faction, said all the provisions within the deal, such as disarming the Janjaweed, were worthless if Darfur was not given a vice-president within the national government in Khartoum.
"How can we guarantee implementation of the agreement if we do not have sufficient representation?" he said. Yesterday's deal arrived after two years and seven rounds of talks.
Western diplomats, including US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick, spent the past week reworking the text of the agreement to offer stronger security guarantees to the rebels.
The final deal sets out the terms of a ceasefire, disarmament of militias linked to the government and the integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan's armed forces.
It also guarantees the rebels a majority in each of Darfur's three state legislatures.
"The priority for us is peace and the priority for us is to alleviate the humanitarian situation in Darfur," said Majzoub al-Khalifa, head of the government's negotiating team.
The deal offers the possibility for a UN peacekeeping force to replace AU ceasefire monitors who have struggled to protect civilians and aid convoys from attack. Sudan has repeatedly said it would only allow a UN presence when a peace deal had been signed.
The agreement came as the UN's top humanitarian official warned that conditions in the region had deteriorated again. Jan Egeland said obstruction by the Sudanese government and increased violence from both rebels and Khartoum forces had reduced access for aid workers to its lowest level in two years.
"I first spoke to the UN Security Council on Darfur two years ago, calling it ethnic cleansing of the worst kind. Today, I could simply hit the rewind button on much of that earlier briefing," he said in a statement.