Sudan ? The Sudanese government signed a peace deal Saturday with a group of rebels from eastern Sudan, ending a deadly strife that has been overshadowed by the conflict in the country’s western Darfur region.

The Eastern Rebel Front has fought an intermittent war with the Sudanese government for 10 years. The signing of the agreement is considered a relief to Khartoum, which has been struggling to put down rebellions on both sides of the country, as well as to keep a shaky peace after a civil war with the south.

The conflict in Sudan’s east bore some similarities to the more publicized strife in Darfur. In 2005, the U.N. World Food Program said the malnutrition rate in the east had grown worse than in Darfur.