JOHANNESBURG – The Sudanese government has agreed to postpone the latest round of peace talks, which were meant to be held with major rebel groups on Thursday in South Sudan’s capital Juba, to December 10 following a request from the South Sudan government which is mediating the talks.
"The government is looking forward to resuming the negotiations on the new date," Mohamed Al Taayushi, a member of Sudan’s sovereign council, said in the statement.
Khartoum’s new transitional government and rebels began peace talks in October after the ousting of former president Omar Al Bashir and his forces in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
During the first round of talks, Khartoum agreed to allow humanitarian relief into the three war-torn states, where years of conflict have left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.
In 2003 violence erupted in the western part of Darfur when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Bashir's Arab-dominated government, accusing it of marginalising the region economically and politically.
The Sudanese government has agreed to postpone the latest round of peace talks, which were meant to be held with major rebel groups, to December 10. Video: Zodidi Dano/African News Agency.
Similar conflicts also erupted in South Kordofan and Blue Nile during the secession of Sudan's south from the north in 2011.