Chad’s Déby invites Darfur rebel leaders to N’Djamena

The three main Darfur hold-out rebel movements have accepted the invitation of Chad’s President Idris Déby to discuss the stalled peace talks with the Sudanese government in N'Djamena.

Deby sent an invitation to the leaders of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM, and Minni Minawi’s breakaway SLM.

In a press statement on Friday, the three movements said that El Nur and JEM leader Jibril Ibrahim met with President Deby in the German capital on Wednesday.

The Chad president invited them to N'Djamena to discuss the political situation in Sudan after the conclusion of the National Dialogue, the peace process, and the situation in Darfur.

The rebel leaders praised Déby’s efforts to support the realisation of peace and stability in the country.

President Déby attended the closing session of the National Dialogue conference in Khartoum on 10 October, together with the presidents of Mauritania, Uganda, and Egypt.

The last round of simultaneous negotiations between the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N on the Two Areas, and the Justice and Equality Moment (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) on Darfur, brokered by the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) in Addis Ababa collapsed on 14 August.

Both sides accused the other of obstructing the peace talks. While the introduction of new issues by the JEM and SLM-MM caused the negotiations on Darfur to collapse, the provision of humanitarian aid to the war victims lead to a deadlock in the talks concerning the Two Areas.