Sudan declares Darfur ceasefire

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has announced an immediate ceasefire in the Darfur region of western Sudan. He also said his government would start disarming militias and restrict the use of weapons among armed forces. However, rebels fighting in the region did not take part in negotiations and have not agreed to the ceasefire. Previous ceasefires have failed. Mr Bashir has recently come under intense pressure after an international court issued a warrant for his arrest.

The International Criminal Court sought to indict him in July on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Up to 300,000 people have died and more than two million have fled their homes in Darfur since 2003. Monitoring: Mr Bashir made the announcement after hearing the final recommendations of the Sudan People's Initiative (SPI), a government-backed plan to find peace for Darfur that did not involve any rebel groups. The recommendations were expected to lay a foundation for a possible peace conference in Qatar. "I hereby announce our immediate unconditional ceasefire between the armed forces and the warring factions, provided that an effective monitoring mechanism is put into action and observed by all involved parties," Mr Bashir said. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a key rebel group, told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that it could not agree to the ceasefire. However, Sudanese Industry Minister Jalal al-Dugair, a spokesman for the SPI, told the BBC that the government would launch contacts with the rebel groups to promote the ceasefire. The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says the announcement can be seen as significant step forward. One international observer told our correspondent that it was partly an attempt by the Sudanese government to put pressure on rebel groups to sign up to a 2006 peace agreement, which most rebels rejected. There are also hopes that the announcement will put pressure on the international community to set up a monitoring force in Darfur, as no such force exists at the moment. Finally, the government also hopes this could be enough to convince the international community to defer the ICC case against Mr Bashir, our correspondent says. Interviewed by the BBC on Tuesday before Mr Bashir's announcement, Sudan's Foreign Minister Deng Alor said any ceasefire would not come as a direct response to the ICC, but might influence it. "If we come up with the clear roadmap for Darfur, then I think we can have the moral authority to begin to ask... whether they could defer the decision by the ICC," he said.