eyes on Tripoli this weekend

On Saturday, Darfur rebel groups, the Sudanese government, and about a million other people will meet in Tripoli for peace talks.

Expectations are not high.

That's partly because the rebel groups are fighting each other. I know, it used to so simple, there was the government and the rebels! (well, not exactly.) But while there were 3 [sort-of] primary rebel groups, there are now god-knows how many, and they are killing each other, and killing African Union peacekeepers, among other things.

Sudan will not necessarily see a need to concede much of anything when it faces no unified threat. And it is unclear how all of the different parties are possibly going to reach some kind of agreement.

The LATimes (Edmund Sanders and Maggie Farley) has been doing a good bit of coverage on rebel disunity. Today Sanders laid out where things stand in advance of the conference Saturday. Oy.