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Cease-Fire Brings Hope of End to Sudan’s Years of Rebellions

Cease-Fire Brings Hope of End to Sudan’s Years of Rebellions

(Bloomberg) -- Sudan’s government agreed a cease-fire with regional rebels, potentially paving the way for an end to long-running insurgencies that rocked swaths of Africa’s third-largest country under ex-President Omar al-Bashir.

Armed groups from Sudan’s Darfur region and its southern border states were among those signing the pact Wednesday in Juba, the capital of neighboring South Sudan. The deal also promises the release of prisoners and access of aid agencies to regions that have suffered from mass hunger and disease.

“I assure all Sudanese people that the oppression has ended and the government is ready to do everything to stop war in all parts of the country,” Sudan’s representative, Mohamed Hamdan -- the leader of a once-Bashir-allied militia with roots in Darfur -- told reporters at the ceremony.

Sudan, where Bashir was overthrown in April after mass protests, is now ruled by a joint civilian and military government that’s promising to make amends for decades of alleged rights abuses, corruption and economic mismanagement. But with authorities still stacked with remnants of Bashir’s rule, including Hamdan, activists remain skeptical how far the changes will go.

Bashir, who’s on trial for alleged corruption in Sudan but wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity during the Darfur war that began in 2003, also faced rebellions in the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

Potent Challengers

Rebels who signed Wednesday’s deal include the Justice and Equality Movement and factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North and the Sudan Liberation Movement Army -- some of Bashir’s most potent challengers.

Hamdan, who was deputy of the military council that initially replaced Bashir, is widely seen as Sudan’s most powerful man -- the chief of a militia that controls the main cities and has been deployed to help Saudi Arabia’s battle against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

There’s been speculation that the Darfuri warlord, who might harbor political ambitions and is lacking clout among the Nile Valley elite who’ve traditionally led Sudan, may be gathering support from peripheral regions that have long accused the Khartoum government of neglect.

“This is the last war, and the people of Sudan will enjoy peace once and for all,” Alhadi Idris, who signed for the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, a rebel coalition, said Wednesday.

--With assistance from Tarek El-Tablawy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Okech Francis in Juba at fokech@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Karl Maier

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