Sudan rebels, govt extend peace talks for three weeks

Trainee soldiers for a new unified army pose for a photo outside their quarters built of grass while attending a reconciliation programme run by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) at a makeshift barracks in Mapel on January 31, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 17 February 2020
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Sudan rebels, govt extend peace talks for three weeks

  • The SRF and Khartoum representatives signed a deal to keep negotiations going

JUBA: The Sudanese government and a coalition of rebel groups on Monday extended peace talks for another three weeks after missing a deadline for a final peace deal.
The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) — a coalition of nine rebel groups — and Khartoum representatives signed a deal to keep negotiations going after failing to wrap up talks by February 15.
“Hopefully this will be the last extension for these talks,” SRF deputy secretary general Yasir Arman told AFP.
Important steps have been made to “finalize a peace agreement,” Arman said.
The peace talks, which began in South Sudan in October, aim to end conflicts in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where rebels have fought bloody campaigns against marginalization by Khartoum under ousted president Omar Al-Bashir.
Hopes of a peace deal were raised after Sudan’s transitional government, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, made ending conflict in these areas a priority.
So far the parties have agreed on a cease-fire, humanitarian access, land issues and the resettlement of those displaced by the conflicts.


Two dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

Updated 2 sec ago
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Two dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

  • Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah
SIDON, Lebanon: Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed two people on Wednesday, authorities said, as Israel said it targeted operatives from militant group Hezbollah.
Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting members of the Iran-backed group or its infrastructure.
The health ministry said that an “Israeli enemy strike... on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani in the Sidon district killed one person,” referring to an area far from the Israeli border.
An AFP correspondent saw a charred car on a main road with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance.
Later, the ministry said another strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed one person.
Israel said it struck operatives from the militant group in both areas, saying the raids came “in response to Hezbollah’s repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings.”
This month, Lebanon’s army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.
The strike in Zahrani on Wednesday was north of the Litani.
Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army’s progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.
More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.