The talks regarding peace in Darfur hosted by Libya entered its second day on Sunday, but the overall atmosphere turned into one full of frustration as the key rebel leaders boycotted the meeting with their absence.

Before the start of the meeting on Saturday in the Libyan city of Sirte, Sudan’s government declared a unilateral ceasefire in the troubled region of Darfur through the adviser of the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Nafie Ali Nafie.

"We announce a ceasefire from this moment, and we will respect it unilaterally," Nafie stated.

Nevertheless, the general opinion on this matter is that this ceasefire is not going to last for very long and the violence in the Darfur region will unfortunately resume.

"We are committed to respecting this unilateral ceasefire," added Nafie Ali Nafie, before the talks mediated by the UN and the African Union had begun.

However, even with the peace talks on the way, the frustration continues to grow as the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have chosen not to participate at the meeting.

The above mentioned factions are complaining about the fact that the violence stirred by the government has not stopped and that their demand addressed to the UN mediators to postpone the talks until they can form a common front were ignored.

With the two big factions not participating at the talks, Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi held his speech in a pessimistic tone. The plain message was that peace in Darfur can’t be reached without the rebel leaders.

"As long they oppose this conference, we can not find a justification for the international community to intervene," he said.

The conflict in the oil-rich Darfur region has erupted in 2003 with the rebels assaulting government targets. Khartoum has replied quick and launched a military campaign against the rebels.

It is estimated that, since the beginning of the hostilities, approximately 200,000 have died and 2 million have been displaced. The local militia, known as Janjaweed and regarded as being allied with the government, is allegedly responsible for much of the killing.