Five Darfur rebel groups agree to unite / Holdout Darfur rebel groups form new alliance
Three wire-service stories (updated to add the one from the AP):
Five Darfur rebel groups agreed on Saturday to unite ahead of possible peace talks to end a four-year conflict in the region which so far has defied resolution, in part because of fractious rebel groups.
In a statement to reporters, the new group, the United Front for Liberation and Development (UFLD), called on other rebels in Sudan's western region to join them.
"This announcement of the formation of the UFLD is preparation for that eventuality (the peace talks) once it takes place," said Sherif Herir, a top leader in one of two Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) factions that signed the agreement in Asmara.
"The door is open for any movements to join," he added.
The Darfur rebels fractured into more than a dozen armed groups after an unpopular peace deal last year with Khartoum that only one faction signed.
International experts estimate that some 200,000 people have died in Darfur in what the United States has termed genocide.
The violence flared after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003, accusing Sudan's central government of neglecting the remote, arid western region. Khartoum mobilized brutal militias, called Janjaweed, to quell the revolt. Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed, [and] puts the death toll at 9,000.
The new rebel group includes two SLA factions, the Revolutionary Democratic Front Forces, the National Movement for Reform and Development and Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance.
The announcement came one day after the rebels met the U.N. envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, ahead of a meeting in Libya this weekend aimed at advancing peace talks among Darfur's rebel groups.
U.N. and African Union envoys have also set a self-imposed August deadline to launch peace negotiations.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki announced on Saturday that Asmara would attend the meeting in the Libyan capital -- scheduled for July 15-16, which would include regional and international envoys discussing the shape of new peace talks.
In talks with Eliasson, Eritrea's leader said [that] more must be done to resolve the conflict in Darfur.
"The president called for stepped-up endeavours so that the Tripoli meeting may reach a joint consensus for the coming forum regarding endeavours to resolve the Darfur issue," said a statement in an Eritrean government newspaper.
Under sustained international pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined U.N.-AU peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police to bolster the cash-strapped AU force of 7,000 already operating in Darfur. The AU troops have failed to stem the violence.
Five Darfur rebel factions formed a new alliance [on] Saturday in Asmara [in order] to present a united front for peace negotiations with the Sudanese government in Khartoum.
"Following extensive and continuous discussions, the movements agreed (to establish) a united front to deal with the crisis in Darfur and the Sudan, and appeal to all other movements to unify efforts," they said in a statement.
The move comes a month after peace hopes were boosted by Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir's approval for the deployment of a joint peacekeeping force of United Nations and African Union troops in Darfur.
The new United Front for Liberation and Development (UFLD) includes two leading factions of the splintered Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army, one led by Khamis Abdallah Abakar and the other by Sharif Harir.
The Revolutionary Democratic Front Forces (RDFF), the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD) and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA) have also signed.
However, several major rebel movements, including the SLM faction of founder Abdel Wahid Nur, Mahjoub Hussein's Greater Sudan Liberation Movement, and the Justice and Equality Movement, remain outside the new alliance.
"The door is open for all movements to join," Sharif Harir said.
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur erupted, in February 2003.
The civil war broke out when rebel groups, complaining of marginalisation by Khartoum, launched a rebellion, which was brutally repressed by the Sudanese government and its proxy militia, the Janjaweed.
After months of talks in Nigeria, a peace deal was signed last year, but only one of the three negotiating rebel groups endorsed it, resulting in the creation of many splinter groups and a new surge in violence.
The five groups in the new alliance agreed to set up a joint military command and a collective "leadership council."
This council would then "appoint a negotiating team that will be issued with a common position," said the statement, issued in Arabic and English.
The group will be led by a chairman rotating every six months. The first will be Khamis Abdallah Abakar of the SLA/M.
"We want to send a message to the international community, that the people of Darfur can unite by themselves and by their own will," Sharif added.
"And we want to send a message of hope and peace, to the people in the IDP (internally displaced people) camps and the refugees, that we have the ability to unite and shorten their suffering."
The Sudanese rebel leaders, some of whom have long been based in neighbouring Eritrea, said [that] they wanted to unify their stance ahead of possible peace talks with Khartoum.
"We shall expend all efforts to negotiate, but dates are not yet fixed," Sharif said. "This announcement of a united front is in preparation for that eventuality when it takes place."
From the AP...
Five Darfur rebel groups have agreed to join forces ahead of a meeting [on] Sunday in Libya to push for a solution to the four-year conflict in the western region of Sudan.
The new coalition, calling itself the United Front for Liberation and Development, said [on] Saturday [that] it wanted to establish "a united front to deal with the crisis in Darfur and the Sudan; and appeal to all other movements to contribute to unity efforts."
The group has been meeting in Eritrea since late May.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the Darfur region of western Sudan since 2003, when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect.
Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed — a charge [that] it denies.
A peace agreement signed a year ago year between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's government and one rebel group in Darfur has been ineffective, because more than a dozen other rebel factions rejected the deal and are still fighting.
The five rebels groups who agreed to unite [on] Saturday are among more than a dozen relatively obscure splinter factions that emerged in the aftermath of last year's peace deal.
Experts say [that] they do not represent a significant military force on the ground in Darfur. But Eritrea, Chad and Libya have been pushing for the creation of such an umbrella coalition for the rebels, in the hope [that] this could facilitate ongoing peace negotiations with Khartoum.
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