Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday signed a ceasefire deal in the Qatari capital of Doha with a major rebel group operating in the volatile Darfur region, marking the first step towards ending the seven-year conflict in the country's western region.
Though the government in Kartomb has now reached a ceasefire agreement with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) with Tuesday's deal, several other rebel groups operating in the Darfur region, including the Sudan Liberation Army, have rejected it.
Soon after signing the ceasefire deal, JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim announced that the cease-fire would take effect on Tuesday night. Describing the deal as an "important step," Ibrahim cautioned that the road to peace needs patience and concessions from both sides.
The ceasefire deal on Tuesday came three days after an agreement on the proposal was reached between the two sides on Saturday. Although the deal is expected to pave the way for signing a formal peace deal by March 15, the JEM indicated such a deadline as unrealistic.
The final deal includes agreements relating to power-sharing arrangements "at all levels," cancellation of death penalties imposed on some 100 JEM fighters over an attack on the city of Omdurman that killed at least 200 people a couple of years ago and the incorporation of the rebel forces into Sudan's army.
Tuesday's ceremony was witnessed by Chadian President Idriss Deby and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hammad bin Khalifa. Ahead of the signing ceremony, Sheikh Khalifa described the move as a "steadfast step toward a peaceful solution" in the Darfur region, indicating that his country would contribute $1 billion to a fund to reconstruct Sudan.
The deal was mediated by Chadian President Idriss Deby, who is also shares ethnic ties with Khalil Ibrahim and most JEM leaders. President Deby is from the Zaghawa tribe like most JEM leaders, and he has been accused in the past of supporting the Darfur rebel group in its fight against Khartoum.
The Chadian mediation to end the Darfur conflict follows a recent dramatic improvement in Chad-Sudan ties. Though each of the two countries had accused the other in the past of supporting rebels groups operating in their respective territories, relations improved after the leaders of the two nations agreed at a meeting last month to end support for each other's rebels.
The agreement on Tuesday came despite a standing warrant issued by the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC) for the arrest of Sudanese President al-Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Qatar, where the signing ceremony took place, is incidentally not an ICC signatory.
The prosecutors at the ICC have argued that al-Bashir's indictment should also include charges of conducting genocide in troubled Darfur region, claiming that they have evidence to show that the Sudanese president mobilized his entire government machinery to destroy a substantial part of three Darfur ethnic groups--Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa--during the seven-year long campaign.
The ICC arrest warrant against President al-Bashir marks the first such action against a sitting head of state, which came despite a warning from the Sudanese government and the African Union that any such action by the ICC would disrupt the ongoing UN peace efforts in the troubled Darfur region.
According to UN estimates, about 300,000 people have been killed and some 2.7 million displaced in the Darfur region after ethnic Africans took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in 2003 to fight discrimination.
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