US envoy, Sudan agree to accelerate efforts for Darfur peace
March 3, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — US president special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios agreed with the Sudanese president assistant in his first meeting held Khartoum, on the importance to find a swift solution for Darfur crisis.
At the end of a meeting on Darfur peace process, Nafie Ali Nafie told reporters that the two parties agreed on the need to “search quickly for a negotiated solution to Darfur,” where a civil war has been raging for the past four years.
He hopes that efforts to reunite the rebel groups be successful so they join the peace process and hasten steps to find a solution without any preconditions.
US envoy, who is visiting Sudan for the third time, described the talks as positive adding that they discussed how to reach a settlement and the role he could play in boosting peace in the country.
Natsios said that it was necessary to “broaden the search for peace” to all rebel groups.
He confirmed that he would go to Darfur as well as Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, in the course of his week-long visit.
Foreign ministry official Abdelbasset Senoussi told SUNA he hopes Natsios’ mission “will re-launch the search for a solution in Darfur and increase pressure on non-signatories of the peace accord so that they will rejoin the peace process.”
On his most recent mission in December, Natsios failed to convince Beshir to accept the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million displaced since the conflict erupted. Some sources say the death toll is much higher.
(ST)