US military team conducts landmine survey in central Sudan

KHARTOUM
July 7 (AFP)

A team of US military experts has conducted a technical survey of landmines in different locations in central Sudan's Nuba Mountains, a Sudanese independent newspaper said Sunday.

The team, made up of serving US army officers, will prepare and submit to the Sudanese government a report on landmines in the region, local humanitarian aid official Ibrahim Abdel Qadir was quoted by al-Hurriya daily as saying.

The team was invited by Khartoum to carry out this task in the context of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in the region between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the report said.

The report did not specify any further details. US embassy sources were not available for comment.

The United States has recently been involved in attempts to end Sudan's civil war, with US special envoy John Danforth recommending in May that Washington remain engaged by offering more humanitarian aid, enhancing diplomatic ties with Khartoum and supporting regional peace bids.

The war, which pits mostly Christian and animist rebels in the south and northern opposition groups against the regime in Khartoum, has left up to two million dead and an estimated four million displaced.