By Elizabeth Costner
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – After a two-month absence, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) have said they will rejoin the national unity government in Sudan.  In October, the SPLM withdrew amid accusations that President Bashir’s National Congress Party was failing to implement the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended the 21-year civil war. 

The SPLM has agreed to end the boycott following a meeting between their leader, First Vice President Salva Kiir and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.  The parties agreed to funding for a census and a timetable to pull troops out of the north-south border.  The government will also move to the southern capital of Juba every three months.

Although there is still no agreement regarding the oil-rich Abyei region, SPLM’s Secretary General Pagan Amum said most issues had been resolved. Abyei “is a complicated question whose resolution requires a lot of efforts and we hope that it will be resolved by December 31 [or] that there will be an agreement on how to resolve it” said a member of Bashir’s National Congress Party. 

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended Africa’s longest running civil war that resulted in 2 million deaths and 4 million displaced.  It was largely between Khartoum’s Islamist government and Christian and animist rebels.  The agreement provides for a six-year transition period, which allows the south to retain autonomy and participate in the national government.  A national referendum is scheduled for 2011 on whether to create a separate southern state.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Sudanese peace deal back on track – 12 December 2007

AFP – Former Sudanese rebels to rejoin unity cabinet – 12 December 2007

Reuters Africa – Sudan moves parliament south to heal rift – 12 December 2007

VOA News – Southern Ministers Set to Rejoin Sudan Government – 12 December 2007