African Union team visits Darfur

KHARTOUM, June 2 (AFP) — A high-level African Union (AU) delegation began a three-day visit to Darfur to assess the humanitarian situation in the war-torn western Sudanese region.

Internally displaced Sudanese line up to fill their water containers at the Abu Shouk camp, home of some 100,000 refugees in Sudan’s troubled western province of Darfur May 25, 2005. (Reuters) .

The visit comes on the heels of a tour by UN chief Kofi Annan who warned that the world was running “a race against time” to solve the conflict.

The AU team is monitoring a shaky ceasefire between Khartoum and Darfur’s ethnic minority rebels, and will meet Sudanese officials and aid workers and visit camps housing displaced people in Darfur.

Between 180,000 and 300,000 people have been killed and 2.4 million made homeless in Darfur since a rebel uprising in early 2003 prompted Khartoum to unleash militias in a scorched-earth campaign.

Humanitarian officials warned that the situation in Darfur is growing more desperate because of shortfalls in funding, drought, famine and the long-term effects of conflict.

World Food Programme chief for east and central Africa, Holdbrook Arthur, told journalists that the WFP has received only half the 563 million dollars (459 million euros) it needs from donor governments for relief work in Darfur.

The WFP was initially assisting 2.5 million people in the western Sudanese region, but now expects the number to rise to 3.5 million this year, Arthur said in Geneva.

The violence has stopped Darfur’s farmers from working their fields, while herders have been unable to take their livestock to the region’s markets, compounding the crisis caused by drought, he said.

The African Union announced last week it had received 292 million dollars in donations. But it wants more than 460 million dollars in cash, military equipment and logistical support to boost its current 2,700-strong truce monitoring operation to more than 7,700 by September.

The delegation, led by peace and security commissioner Said Djinnit, kicked off its tour in the capital of North Darfur state, El Fasher, where it will meet the head of the African Union Mission in Sudan and its force commander.

AMIS spokesman Noureddine Mezni said the officials would also visit the ZamZam and Kalma camps for displaced persons.

On Friday Djinnit will meet with US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who is also visiting the region.

Djinnit will then go to Nyala where he will attend a reconciliation ceremony between an Arab and an African tribes.

On Saturday, Djinnit and his delegation will hold meetings in El Fasher with the humanitarian and aid groups to discuss the situation in the region and “how best AMIS could continue to provide and enhance protection to humanitarian convoys and personnel,” said Mezni.

The delegation will wrap up its visit with a stopover in Khartoum on Saturday for consultations with Sudanese officials, as well as representatives of the international community and AU member states.