The comprehensive peace agreement signed on January 9 in Nairobi between the
southern rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the
Sudanese government has formally put an end to a 21-year north-south civil war,
and has raised hopes for peace in Darfur, the western state of Sudan where over
400,000 people have died as a result of genocidal policies of militia groups
armed by the Sudanese military. Pagan Amum, a SPLM leader, stated that SPLM has
been in contact with the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality
Movement, the two major rebel movements in Darfur, to see how those groups could
use the southern peace agreement as a model. But Adam Ali Shogar, spokesman for
the Sudan Liberation Army, told The Associated Press, “We have not much
hope that this will [help] solve the crisis in Darfur."
