Obasanjo, Beshir discuss Darfur crisis resolution

July 20, 2006 (ABUJA) — Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir, have met here to review ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis in the strife-torn Darfur region, an official statement said Thursday.

Obasanjo and Bashir, who was in Nigeria to participate in the ongoing Leon H. Sullivan development summit in the Nigerian capital, late Wednesday discussed the implementation of the Sudanese government’s peace agreement with rebel groups in the south of the country.

At the end of several months of African Union-sponsored talks last May in Abuja, a faction of one of the two key rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement — signed the accord, while the second rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, refused to sign it.

The failure of all the parties to the conflict to sign the agreement has made it difficult to implement and has led to the escalation of fighting in the Darfur region.

During their meeting, Obasanjo reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the establishment of lasting peace and political stability in all parts of Sudan, the statement said.

Between 180,000 and 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and at least 2.4 million others displaced since fighting broke out between local rebels and the pro-government militia in February 2003.

The international community has agreed to transform the hapless and cash-strapped African Union Mission in Sudan into a United Nations force to help protect civilians, who have been targeted by both the government-backed militia and rebel groups.

But Beshir has flatly rejected the deployment of any Western forces in the region, saying recently that “Sudan, which was the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, cannot now be the first country to be recolonized.”

(ST)