Washington, D.C. - February 25, 2010 – The United Nations Security Council today joined Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in calling on all parties in the deadly conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region to join in the peace process following the signing of a cessation of hostilities accord between the Government and a major rebel group.
“The members of the Security Council called on the parties to move to quickly implement the agreement in full as an important step towards peace in Darfur,” Ambassador Gérard Araud of France, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for February, said in a press statement, welcoming the accord signed in Doha, Qatar, by the Government and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Tuesday.

“They further called on all other parties in Darfur to join the Doha peace process and the agreement,” said Araud.

Mr. Ban, who hailed the agreement on Tuesday, said he looked forward to its full implementation and called on all parties “to engage in the inclusive Doha peace process with flexibility and political vision, and to agree on a definitive political settlement of the Darfur crisis.”

Other rebel groups have still not signed agreements with the Government to end the nearly seven years of fighting that has killed at least 300,000 people and driven 2.7 million others from their homes.

As the country approaches a scheduled election in April,  Assistant Secretary of State Phillip Crowley addressed that issue Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, ” You have two imperatives here. There are things that are going to happen in Sudan in the future, and those are things that are – that will be significant events in the future of the region.”

Crowley continued, “So we have to work with the parties on how are we going to hold the election in April, how are we going to hold the referendum in January, how are – if Southern Sudan, for example, chooses in that referendum for independence, how will that take place? What are going to be the relationships between North and South that we take for granted here in the United States, having peaceful borders with Canada and with Mexico? But for newly created countries, if you’re not careful, you sow the seeds of future conflict.”

More information on the Darfur Conflict: Wikipedia:War in Darfur

-Vermont Daily News report