Sudan, rebels reach Darfur accords
(CNN) -- The Sudanese government and rebels in the country's Darfur region have signed security and humanitarian agreements in Nigeria after two weeks of talks, the press officer for Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has said.
More than 1.5 million people have been forced from their homes because of fighting in Darfur, creating what the United Nations has termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The government abandoned its objection to a no-fly zone in the area to make the security agreement happen.
The agreement moves the government closer to disarming the brutal Janjaweed militias, and it calls on both sides to allow monitors to observe the cease-fire.
The second agreement calls for aid workers to have unfettered access to refugees.
In a report issued earlier this month, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "almost one-third of the estimated population of Darfur now requires lifesaving assistance from the international community."
Conflict in the strife-torn region began last year when black Sudanese rebels attacked government property, accusing the government of neglecting the area in favor of the Sudanese Arab population.
The government then commissioned the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion.
Earlier this year, warring factions agreed to a cease-fire but violence between them has continued.
An estimated 70,000 people have died from disease and malnutrition since April.
Tens of thousands more have died in violence that President George W. Bush -- in a presidential debate last month with Senator John Kerry -- agreed was genocide.
