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          Sudan Sets Date for Darfur Administrative Status Referendum

   by Reuters

   Sudan will hold a referendum in Darfur on April 11-13 over whether or
   not the war-torn region will stay divided into five states or reunite
   as one entity with a degree of autonomy, a senior official said on
   Tuesday.

   The splitting of Darfur into five states was one of the main reasons
   the deadly conflict there arose in the first place. The Darfur conflict
   began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the
   Arab-led government in Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination.

   "Voting over the administrative situation of Darfur will be between 11
   and 13 of next April," the Darfur referendum commission head Omar Ali
   Gemaa said at a news conference.

   The referendum was agreed upon in the 2001 Doha peace deal that the
   government signed in Qatar with the Liberation and Justice Movement, an
   umbrella organization of small rebel groups.

   The two main rebel groups that started the conflict, the Justice and
   Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, did not sign the deal.

   Sudan has decided to go ahead with the referendum unilaterally with
   several rebel and opposition groups boycotting the process, raising
   fears that the region might follow in South Sudan's footsteps and
   secede.

   South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 under a 2005 peace deal which
   ended one of Africa's longest civil wars but both countries remain at
   loggerheads over ownership of disputed territories and other issues.

   According to the United Nations, as many as 300,000 people have been
   killed in Darfur, some 4.4 million people need aid and more than 2.5
   million have been displaced. Although the killings have eased, the
   insurgency continues and Khartoum has sharply escalated attacks on
   rebel groups over the past year.
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   tive-status-referendum/3142757.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/sudan-sets-date-for-darfur-administrative-status-referendum/3142757.html