\n The Sudanese government said Wednesday it has accepted an invitation from the African Union to attend peace talks with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North in Addis Ababa next month.\n<\/p>\n
\n The SPLM-N has been battling Khartoum's forces in the southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since 2011, and did not immediately say whether they would attend.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Sudanese government received an invitation to a new round of negotiations about the two areas with the SPLM-N on November 2 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, and the invitation was to both sides,\" said Hussein Kershoum, a member of the government's delegation for negotiations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kershoum said the government was prepared to attend.\n<\/p>\n
\n A round of talks last year ended without result.\n<\/p>\n
\n The latest invitation comes as Khartoum redoubles its efforts to persuade the SPLM-N and rebels from the western Darfur region to join a national dialogue, aimed at resolving the insurgencies on the country's peripheries and mending an ailing economy.\n<\/p>\n
\n Three main Darfur rebel groups and the SPLM-N, which form part of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), have declined to attend and called for a meeting outside the country to set conditions for dialogue.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a bid to encourage them to attend, President Omar al-Bashir -- wanted by the International Criminal Court over war crimes charges related to the conflict in Darfur -- declared a two-month ceasefire in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan last month.\n<\/p>\n
\n The SPLM-N has already said Khartoum has carried out air strikes since then.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fighting in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile usually halts during the rainy season between June and November.\n<\/p>\n
\n But spokesmen from the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army-Minnawi -- two Darfur-based members of the SRF -- said Wednesday the alliance had declared a six-month cessation of hostilities, but the SPLM-N has not confirmed this.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"At the time of writing we have not received confirmation of that,\" SPLM-N spokesman Arnu Lodi told AFP Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mostly black rebels in Darfur mounted an insurgency against Bashir's Arab-dominated government in 2003, complaining that their region had been marginalised.\n<\/p>\n
\n In response, Bashir unleashed a brutal counter-insurgency using troops and allied militia.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United Nations says 2.5 million people have fled the fighting and some 300,000 have been killed, although Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n Former insurgents in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states rebelled in 2011, also complaining of marginalisation.\n<\/p>\n
\n European Union ambassadors in Sudan made a rare visit to Blue Nile state on Wednesday, where humanitarian access has been limited because of the conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There is an urgent need for more development and humanitarian assistance to the Blue Nile,\" the EU head of delegation Tomas Ulicny said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sudanese government said Wednesday it has accepted an invitation from the African Union to attend peace talks with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North in Addis Ababa next month. The SPLM-N has been battling Khartoum's forces in the southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since 2011, and did not immediately say whether they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-2636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n