Key Provisions of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA)

On May 5, 2006, the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on the Conflict in Darfur, held in Abuja, Nigeria, concluded with an agreement between the Government of Sudan and one faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group.  Two other rebel groups, another faction of the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), did not sign the agreement; the African Union (AU) has established a May 31 deadline for these other groups to agree to its terms.

U.N. Special Envoy Jan Eliasson and A.U. Special Envoy Salim Ahmed Salim have developed a "Road-map for Darfur Political Process" to move peace talks forward in Darfur. Security Council 1769, authorizing the AU-UN joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID), called for renewed peace talks based on the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) covers four main subject areas: 

• Power Sharing;
• Wealth Sharing;
• Security Arrangements; and
• Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation (DDDC).  

Each of these is summarized below.

Power Sharing

• Establishes, as the fourth ranking national official (after the President and two Vice Presidents) a new position of Senior Assistant to the President, to be chosen from a list proposed by the rebel groups that sign the DPA. 
• Provides that this official will serve as chair of a new Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) with principal responsibility for implementing the DPA.  (The TDRA also will include the heads of agencies responsible for core functions such as rehabilitation and resettlement, reconstruction and development, settlement of land disputes, implementation of security arrangements, and compensation for losses resulting form the conflict.)
• Provides that eight of the ten TDRA members will be nominated by the rebels.
• Reserves for members of rebel groups that sign the DPA a minority of government positions, including one governorship, two deputy governorships, and almost 30 percent of the seats in the regional legislatures, until national and regional elections are held in three years.
• Establishes mechanisms to help train and place Darfurians in other local and national positions, with a target level for representation in the national civil service to be determined by a Panel of Experts to include some members nominated by the rebel groups that sign the DPA.
• Exempts Darfurian students from payment of school fees for five years, and reserves for ten years 15 percent of incoming seats at universities in Khartoum, and 50 percent at universities in Darfur for such students.
• Requires that no later than 2010, a referendum is to be held in Darfur to determine whether the three regional states should be consolidated into one region (seen as likely to increase Darfur’s influence in the national government) or remain separate states.

Wealth Sharing

• Provides for a Panel of Experts to establish a formula for allocation to Darfur of a fair portion of national revenues, including from the oil industry.

• Establishes a new Darfur Reconstruction and Development Fund to manage rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development -- to be funded by the national government at levels of $300 million in 2006 and $200 million each in 2007 and 2008, and also financed by international donors
• Creates a Compensation Commission with guidelines for determination and payment of compensation and other remedies for victims of the conflict, and provides that the national government will make an initial $30 million contribution to the Compensation Fund.
• Grants refugees and internally displaced persons the right to restitution or adequate compensation for property loss.
• Establishes a Darfur Rehabilitation and Resettlement Commission to assist such persons and facilitate their safe return home.
• Establishes commissions to arbitrate title disputes and develop policies for land use management and natural resource development.

 Security Arrangements

• Sets out a specific timeline and organizational structures for (1) disarming the pro-government Janjaweed militia within five months, (2) incorporating members of the rebel groups into the Sudanese military forces or assisting their integration into civilian life, and (3) returning principal responsibility for law enforcement in Darfur to a reformed civilian police force.
• Provides that the Janjaweed will be confined to their camps and must relinquish all heavy weapons before any rebel forces are asked to withdraw and demobilize.
• Prohibits armed forces from displaced persons camps and other civilian areas, including humanitarian supply routes.
• Grants expanded powers to the African Union-run Ceasefire Commission, including to identify those responsible for ceasefire violations and to recommend measures against them by the AU Peace and Security Council.
• Provides that these security arrangements will be monitored by African Union peacekeeping forces (which are expected to be strengthened and then integrated into a United Nations peacekeeping force by later this year).

Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation (DDDC)

• Provides for the African Union to convene 60 days after the Agreement comes into force a community-based reconciliation process in Darfur – in  recognition that many stakeholders in Darfur were not represented by the negotiating parties in Abuja.
• Specifies that this DDDC process is to be chaired by an “African of independence and integrity” and assisted by a team of elders from Darfur, and shall have between 800 and 1000 delegates, to include sheiks and tribal leaders, refugees, internally displaced persons, women, rebel groups, militias, civil society, and other local parties. 
• Provides that this process is to be organized by a Preparatory Committee appointed by the African Union and to include members of the rebel groups and the Government of Sudan, as well as tribal leaders and representatives of civil society and international organizations including the African Union, United Nations, and Arab League.
• Empowers the DDDC to make recommendations to the relevant local and national authorities, and to establish a permanent Peace and Reconciliation Council to continue its work.