groups are not included in the pact , and `` many , many things '' could cause the talks to fail , he said . `` It is a start , but it 's very fragile , and we must n't get overexcited just yet , '' Middleton said . In November , Sudan 's President Omar al-Bashir agreed to an immediate , unconditional cease-fire in Darfur , but JEM was not included in the talks . Sudan 's Culture Minister Amin Hassan Omar and Jibril Ibrahim , a top rebel official , signed Tuesday 's agreement . Qatar has been mediating talks between the two sides in the Darfur conflict , which erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Khartoum government . The government launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign , aided by government-backed Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur , killing , torturing and raping residents , according to the United Nations , Western governments and human rights organizations . Al-Bashir is under pressure to end the fighting , particularly because he was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court last year for the government 's campaign of violence in Darfur
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Sudan 's government and rebels from its troubled Darfur region signed a confidence-building agreement Tuesday in Qatar , a step toward ending a six-year conflict that has killed about 300,000 people , the emirate 's state news agency reported . A member of the Justice and Equality Movement -LRB- JEM -RRB- stands guard near the Sudan-Chad border in 2007 . Detailed talks between the government and the Justice and Equality Movement are scheduled to begin in two weeks after Tuesday 's signing , Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabr al-Thani , Qatar 's prime minister , told the SUNA news agency . Roger Middleton , an Africa specialist at the British think-tank Chatham House , said Tuesday 's agreement deals mostly with prisoner releases . But he said the two parties ' decision to hold further talks `` is an important move forward , which there has n't necessarily been in the past . '' `` It is certainly a step in the right direction , '' he said . `` But a lot more needs to be done if we 're going to see a full cessation of fighting in Darfur . '' Other rebel