Sudan rebels claim cease-fire deal
From CNN Correspondent Catherine Bond
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Negotiators for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army said on Tuesday they had reached a temporary cease-fire agreement in talks with the Sudanese government.
The government's agreement to the truce has yet to be confirmed by government negotiators and mediators at the peace talks in Mackhakos, Kenya.
SPLA spokesman, Samson Kwaje, said the rebels and government had agreed to "maintain a period of tranquillity during negotiations by ceasing hostilities through all areas of Sudan."
Government negotiators, he said, only wanted the temporary cease-fire - due to last for the period of negotiations over the next month and perhaps longer - to apply to the south of Sudan.
Analysts say this was because the government wanted to redeploy troops from the south to what is called the eastern front, an area running alongside Sudan's north-eastern border with Eritrea where the SPLA and allied Sudanese opposition forces recently claim to have gained ground.
The government has threatened military action against Eritrea and has played down the role of Sudanese opposition forces on the eastern front.
Kwaje said Tuesday's truce agreement allowed "legitimate measures taken in self-defence" in some circumstances.
The truce applied, he said, not just to Sudan government troops and rebels, but to militias and forces allied to either party.
