Sudan signed a
three-month ceasefire deal with a second Darfur rebel group on Thursday,
as part of the government’s push to end the conflict in the western
Sudanese region before elections.

Two agreements were
signed, a temporary ceasefire agreement that will get renewed as the
talk’s progress and a framework agreement which lists all the topics for
future negotiations.

Representatives from
the government and Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella
group of small splinter factions, signed the deal in the Qatari capital
Doha, weeks after Khartoum signed a similar accord with Darfur’s
powerful insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

JEM dismissed
Thursday’s deal, saying the LJM had no military force on the ground, but
senior JEM official Al-Tahir al-Feki told Reuters his movement would
not immediately act on its threat to walk out of Doha talks in protest
at the deal.

Togo’s
Constitutional Court, on Thursday, confirmed incumbent President, Faure
Gnassingbe’s victory in the March 4 election which opposition leaders
said was rigged. Sporadic demonstrations erupted in Togo’s capital after
the results of the vote were announced on March 6, although the
protests were mostly peaceful.

The election was
widely seen as a test for democracy in the region, following a coup in
Niger and violent protests over delayed polls in Ivory Coast.

Post-election violence in Togo’s 2005 poll, which allowed Gnassingbe
to succeed his father after nearly four decades of dictatorship, killed
as many as 500 people.

Several former top
Gambian security officials smuggled guns and foreign mercenaries into
the country last year as part of a plot to overthrow President Yahya
Jammeh, according to charges filed by Gambia’s Attorney General on
Thursday.

Seven former defence
and intelligence personnel, including former Chief of Defence Staff
Lang Tombong Tamba, have been charged with treason, along with three
businessmen. The charges are filed with Gambia’s High Court.

The accusations come
after a wave of arrests in the West African state, a sliver of land
along the river of the same name sandwiched between northern and
southern Senegal.