French FM to visit Chad, Sudan

PARIS, Feb 18, 2004 (Xinhua) — French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will visit Chad and Sudan on Thursday and Friday for talks on humanitarian aid and peace plan to end the Sudanese civil war, a spokesman of the ministry announced Wednesday.

De Villepin will meet with Chadian President Idriss Deby and visit the refugee camp of Forchana in Chad near the Sudanese borders on Thursday, said spokesman Herve Ladsous.

In all, about 100,000 Sudanese have fled into Chad as fighting between forces loyal to the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) disrupted the livelihood of an estimated 1 million people in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Reports about “humanitarian disaster” recently raised international concerns over the situation in Darfur where Sudanese government troops and their Arab militia allies have been fighting rebels drawn mainly from the region’s non-Arab minorities.

France has repeatedly called for efforts to allow international organizations and non-governmental organizations have access to the displaced populations, said Ladsous.

On Friday, de Villepin will visit Khartoum, said the spokesman, adding that it will be the first visit to Sudan by a French foreign minister.

De Villepin will hold talk with his Sudanese counterpart Mustafa Othman Ismail and meet with Sudanese President Omar el Bechir. The talks will be focused on the peace efforts to end 21 years civil war in the African country.

He will visit the historic city of Ondurman and infrastructure projects financed by France, said the spokesman.

The war in Sudan, rated as Africa’s longest after Angola’s civil war ended, erupted in 1983 and pitted the south, where most inhabitants observe traditional African religions and Christianity, against the Muslim north.