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GUESTS: Jen Marlowe, Co-Director and Co-Producer of the film, Darfur Diaries, Amna El Hag, Fellow at the Population Leadership Program at University of Washington and former UNICEF youth and adolescent coordinator in Sudan, Tajadeen Niam, representative of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)

After months of on-going negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, the biggest faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, has signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government over the on-going government-led genocide in Darfur. A rival SLA faction, and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), refused to sign the deal. The US has played a key role in the peace deal and President Bush has promised to expedite food aid to the impoverished refugee camps where thousands of Darfur residents have languished. To date, at least 180,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict.

The peace deal calls for a cease-fire; disarmament of the government-backed Janjaweed militias; the integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan’s armed forces; and a protection force for civilians in the immediate aftermath of the war. Political provisions include guarantees that the rebel factions will have the majority in Darfur’s three state legislatures, but the rebel groups did not get the national vice presidency they wanted. The deal has opened the door for UN peace keepers to supplement the existing African Union peace keepers but the Sudan government has consistently refused the UN. Meanwhile demonstrators demanding international troops, killed a Sudanese interpreter working with African Union forces in Darfur yesterday during a senior UN official’s visit to a refugee camp.