Darfur chief mediator will leave post to become Burkina Faso’s foreign minister

April 20, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The United Nations and African Union chief joint mediator for Darfur Djibril Bassole has been tapped to become Burkina Faso’s new minister for foreign affairs and regional cooperation.

This week Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore appointed a new prime minister, hoping to restore stability after a series of violent protests by soldiers including his own presidential guard who went on a rampage firing their weapons in the air, looting shops and commandeering cars.

Bassole, who occupied the foreign affairs ministry in his country before, told Sudan Tribune that in light of his appointment he cannot continue as joint mediator. The designated FM said he will soon leave to Khartoum and Doha to follow up on the peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel groups.

He will also participate in the Darfur stakeholders’ conference that will take place in Doha next month. However, he stressed that despite his departure “I remain at the disposal of the Sudanese to contribute in resolving the [Darfur] conflict]”.

This week it was announced that the mediation will submit a final draft peace agreement on April 27th to the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups participating in the talks, namely Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

Bassole was appointed to the mediator post in 2008 with the consent of the UN and AU leadership.

Between 2000 and 2007 he served as Security Minister in Burkina Faso and played a key role in devising the Ouagadougou Agreement, which the then Côte d’Ivoire’s President Laurent Gbagbo and the rebel Forces Nouvelles leader (and now Prime Minister) Guillaume Soro signed to resolve their conflict.

He also worked as a member of the mediation committee for the Tuareg conflict in Niger in 1994-95 and was a member of the international committee for the monitoring of elections in Togo in 1993-94.

Bassole faced many challenges during his tenure as peace envoy, mainly refusal of rebel groups to join the talks and reluctance of Khartoum to offer any meaningful concessions.

Most recently he came under fire from the AU this month which accused him of sidelining the AU High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

The AUHIP was tasked with implementing a roadmap for Darfur that would bring a solution harmonizing peace, justice and reconciliation.

Mbeki and Bassole have been engaged in a behind the scene struggle to assert control over the Darfur peace efforts that are now centered on negotiations between Khartoum and rebel movements in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar.

But over the last year the former South African president has shifted focus away from Darfur and instead concentrated efforts on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war between North and South Sudan.

Darfur rebel groups rejected any dealings with Mbeki who they believe is biased in favor of the Sudanese government that is dominated by the National Congress Party (NCP). The view is also shared in large part by Northern Sudanese opposition parties.

(ST)