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Quote: Darfur Jem rebels sign deal to stop child soldiers 21 July 2010 A Sudanese rebel group has signed an agreement to allow the UN access to its bases to check children are not being recruited as soldiers The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) told the BBC it had been trying to protect children since the beginning of the seven-year conflict in Darfur. The UN said children found in military areas or in conflict zones could be removed under the deal An estimated 6,000 children have been involved in fighting in Darfur The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the UN children's organisation Unicef has hailed the agreement, which took more than a year to negotiate, as a very valuable precedent which it hopes other rebel groups would follow Jem leaders, who travelled to Geneva for the signing, said the movement had no child soldiers but agreed to it as a gesture of goodwill "Jem has no child soldiers actually in its forces at all - and now Unicef has full access to our camps to verify," Jem spokesman Ahmed Hussain Adam told the BBC's Network Africa programme Fighting intensified in Darfur in May after Jem pulled out of peace talks with the government, accusing it of acting in bad faith http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10710315