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.