The Sudanese government has brought the Darfur peace process to an end by launching a military offensive, the region's main rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, warned.

Government "aggression has ended the political process," JEM spokesman Ahmad Hussein Adam told AFP late on Saturday.

"The government has ended the ceasefire on the ground" with an offensive against the JEM, Adam said. "The government is now in a state of total war" with the rebels.

The group on Friday accused government forces of launching an offensive in the western region of Darfur that Adam termed "an attempt to impose a military solution" to the conflict.
He also criticised what he termed the inaction of African Union and United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur since his announcement on Friday of attacks by government forces.

JEM, one of two key Darfur rebel groups, signed a framework accord in February in Doha that was hailed by the international community as a major step toward bringing peace to the region devastated by a seven-year war.

But talks between Khartoum and the JEM have since run into problems and a deadline set under the accord for completing the peace deal passed on March 15 without agreement.
Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.

Source: AFP