Government Signs Darfur Deal with Rebels

(ANS) – Sudan ’s government has signed landmark peace deals with rebels to end fighting which has seen more than 70,000 people killed in recent months and more an1.5 million made homeless, according to news sources. Sudan bowed to international pressure on Tuesday for a ban on military flights over the Darfur region, where 1.5 million have been forced from their homes, and signed two landmark peace deals with rebels, the Reuters news agency reported. After two weeks of talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja , the government dropped its opposition to the no-fly zone and signed agreements with rebels covering security and access for aid to Darfur , scene of what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. “We still have a long way to go, but the step we have taken this afternoon is a very important step in the right direction,” said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo after a signing ceremony.