Signing of Sudanese Power-sharing Deal Boosts Hope of Peace in Africa

Africa's prospects for peace brightened yesterday with the signing in Kenya of an accord to bring an end to Sudan's long-running conflict with southern rebels.

"The new year will be a year of peace and democracy in Sudan," vowed rebel leader Yasir Arman, according to Associated Press. "It will be the end of one of the longest wars in Africa."

Celebrations erupted in the streets of Khartoum at the news, with many southerners waving the rebel flag of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. "Peace is a popular demand," said Abdullah Gomaa, a 28-year old southerner living in Khartoum.

The Sudanese agreement is the latest of several deals that have sparked hope that 2005 will see peace take hold in African regions that have been plagued by long-running conflicts.

Thousands cheered the signing on Thursday of a comprehensive peace agreement in Senegal that promises an end to its 22-year-old rebellion of the southern Casamance province.

In Uganda, the government signed a ceasefire with rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army earlier this week.

The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who mediated the Sudanese negotiations, was present yesterday in Naivasha, Kenya, for the signing by the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, and rebel leaders.

"Our continent of Africa has continued to make progress towards solving its political, economic and social problems," said Mr Mbeki, in a statement released in South Africa shortly before the signing of the Sudanese accord.

He pledged his government would continue to press for peace across Africa.

Sudan's north-south war has pitted the Islamic government, based in Khartoum, against rebels of the Christian south, who seek greater autonomy and a greater share of the country's oil wealth. The conflict is blamed for more than two million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

The warring sides have reached agreement on how to share power and natural wealth and on a six-year transition period after which their armed forces will be joined into a single national army.

The preliminary agreement signed yesterday is to be followed by a formal document to be signed in Nairobi, Kenya, later this month.

UN and US officials hope that an end to the civil war will help bring a resolution to the separate conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, where disease and hunger have killed 70,000 since March, according to the World Health Organisation.

In west Africa, more optimism was generated when Senegal's government signed a peace deal on Thursday with rebels to end a 22-year conflict in the lush southern province of Casamance.

Since 1982, the Senegalese rebels have fought a low-level insurgency for greater autonomy of the largely Christian region, in which hundreds have been killed and the countryside studded with landmines.

The new peace agreement is an achievement for Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade, who, since his election in 2000, made it a priority to end hostilities with Casamance, which is cut off from the rest of the country by the state of Gambia. Earlier this year, Mr Wade announced an amnesty for the rebels.

The accord was signed in the Casamance provincial capital of Ziguinchor. Senegal wants Casamance to return to its glory days as the country's bread-basket and a tourism centre renowned for its white beaches and lush mangrove swamps.

The agreement could also help bring stability to turbulent west Africa.

"Africa is starting the new year with several bright signs of peace, with the ceasefire in Uganda and the peace accords in Sudan and Senegal," said Jonathan Katzenellenbogen, international affairs editor of South Africa's Business Day newspaper.

"Whether these will hold is another question, but at least for now we must be pleased by these glimmers of hope."