Eritrea to attend Darfur peace meeting in Libya

July 14, 2007 (ASMARA) — Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said officials from the Red Sea state would attend a meeting in Libya this weekend aimed at advancing peace talks among Darfur’s rebel groups.

In talks with the top U.N. envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, Eritrea’s leader said more must be done to resolve a four-year-old crisis in the western Sudanese region.

“The president called for stepped-up endeavours so that the Tripoli meeting may reach a joint consensus for the coming forum regarding endeavours to resolve the Darfur issue,” said a statement on Saturday in an Eritrean government newspaper.

The United Nations said the meeting in the Libyan capital Tripoli was scheduled for July 15-16 and would include regional and international envoys discussing the shape of new talks.

Darfur’s rebels have fractured into more than a dozen groups since an unpopular peace deal last year with the Sudanese government that only one of three main factions signed. Some have based themselves in Eritrea’s capital.

International experts estimate that some 200,000 people have died in four years of rape, killing and disease in Darfur. The United States has called the violence genocide, but Khartoum rejects that term and puts the death toll at 9,000.

(Reuters)