Sudan has agreed to a joint withdrawal of government and rebel forces in the strife-torn region of Darfur and will accept a large increase in international cease-fire monitors, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said Wednesday after talks with Sudan’s president. Blair said Sudan also committed to identifying the location of its troops and weapons in Darfur and to working toward comprehensive peace agreements by the end of the year with rebels there and in southern Sudan.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 1.5 million have been driven from their homes since February 2003. The conflict, rooted in tensions between African farmers and Arab nomads, has grown into a counterinsurgency in which pro-government Arab militiamen have raped, killed and burned the homes of African villagers.Full Story
