JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Uganda and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army signed their first-ever truce accord yesterday, boosting hopes for peace talks aimed at ending northern Uganda’s brutal, nearly two-decade war.

The two sides inked a “cessation of hostilities” pact in their first major achievement since the halting talks began here last month to end the conflict, seen by many as the world’s worst and most forgotten humanitarian crisis.

The accord is to take effect on Tuesday and will require rebel fighters to gather at two camps supervised by the autonomous government of southern Sudan that is mediating the talks, according to the text.

It provides for the safe passage of LRA forces to the sites from their hideouts in southern Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Uganda and guarantees their welfare and security once there.

Chief mediator Riek Machar, the vice-president of southern Sudan, urged the parties to fully implement the provisions of the truce as soon as it becomes operative at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on August 29.

“We all know what steps must be taken and what must be done at 0600 hours Tuesday,” he said after the agreement was signed. “We hope that the parties take action as soon as possible so that the guns can be silent.”

The accord comes after more than a month of on-again, off-again negotiations marked by mutual antagonism, harsh rhetoric, violence and rebel demands for major concessions that Kampala has rejected.

“We started these talks on a rough note, but a month later we have reached a very amicable and positive solution,” said Ugandan Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, the leader of Kampala’s delegation at the negotiations.

“It is a significant progress and a breakthrough of great importance in the search for peace,” Ugandan government spokesman Robert Kabushenga told AFP in Kampala. “We have proved the sceptics wrong, they can now go home and sleep.”

The deal was signed after marathon negotiations over conditions for a truce submitted by the government on Friday, in a reversal of its initial position on such a pact.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had previously refused to consider any ceasefire agreement outside a final settlement that would end the conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced nearly two million.

He had repeatedly rejected LRA calls to reciprocate a unilateral truce the rebels declared on August 4, maintaining they would use the opportunity to rearm, regroup and recruit new fighters.

Ugandan officials said the truce offer was a sign of their commitment to end the long-running conflict that has been characterised by widespread atrocities, including massacres, mutilations, rapes and mass kidnappings of children.

“We have reached a very important moment,” Rugunda told reporters. “We have reached an irreversible stage in the search for peace …”

Chief LRA negotiator Martin Ojul said the agreement was the culmination of the rebels’ desire for a truce that would allow the peace talks to progress.