|PIC1|Church leaders in Sudan have called on their government to accept a UN peacekeeping force to stablise the troubled region of Darfur.

The leaders of Sudan’s Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches met in Nairobi last weekend to discuss a permanent peace in the region as the escalating violence raises fresh fears for the safety of aid workers serving the vulnerable in the conflict, reports Ecumenical News International.

Around two million people have been displaced by a three-year-long conflict over the resources in the region, which is situated in western Sudan.

“We are concerned about the escalation of fighting on the ground," said the leaders in a statement on the violence, blamed largely on government-backed militias fighting rebel insurgents.

The decision by one rebel faction to enter into a peace agreement with the government in May has not encouraged two other rebel factions to follow suit.

|AD|The church leaders called on the Sudanese government to listen to the people of Darfur and take steps to disarm the Janjaweed – the militia accused of carrying out the most atrocities.

Meanwhile in the south of Sudan, one archbishop said that normality was slowly returning following another civil war that had raged for more than 20 years.

The return to peace follows the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

"The CPA is the right way. There is happiness," Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro told Ecumenical News International. "A lot people are coming back from the [Sudanese] diaspora."

The return to normality comes despite criticism from the people of southern Sudan at what they regard as the inadequate response of the international community even after it had played a major role in securing the accord.