KHARTOUM - Sudan's president declared the war in Darfur over on Wednesday, announcing the release of 57 rebels a day after signing a ceasefire and initial peace deal with them. Omar Hassan al-Bashir made his announcement at a Darfur rally after agreeing a temporary ceasefire with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Doha on Tuesday. He also signed an agreement committing Sudan to reaching a final peace deal with the rebels by March 15. Other Darfur rebel groups have rejected the deal and the agreement came almost exactly a year after the last Khartoum/JEM ceasefire which the rebels said broke down in a day. "Now the war is finished in Darfur ... We must start fighting the war for development," Bashir told his supporters at the rally in the capital of North Darfur El Fasher in a recording of the speech heard by Reuters. The United Nations estimates up to 300,000 have died since JEM and the rebel Sudan Liberation Army took up arms against Sudan's government in 2003, accusing it of neglecting the region. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000. Bashir said the government had freed 57 JEM fighters, half the number of men imprisoned after being implicated in a shock attack on Khartoum in 2008. The releases were promised as part of the new accord with JEM. JEM supporters mounted an unprecedented rally outside Khartoum's Kober prison where the men were released on Wednesday afternoon, a Reuters witness said. JEM has been an outlawed group since it launched the 2003 Darfur revolt and public displays of support outside Darfur were unheard of.
