AU envoy sees Darfur as internal African problem: report

KHARTOUM, July 28 (AFP) — An envoy of the African Union’s (AU) chairman, Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, views the Darfur problem as an internal African issue to be solved by the AU alone, Sudanese media reported Wednesday.

“The Darfur problem is a purely African one that has to be resolved by the African Union,” General Abdulsalami Abubakar, himself a former Nigerian head of state, was quoted by the official Al-Anbaa daily as saying.

He said the AU had “adopted at its recent summit a package of resolutions on Darfur to be implemented by the (Sudanese) government and rebels.”

Reporting from Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur, the newspaper quoted Abubakar as praising current efforts by Khartoum and other organisations to restore security and stability and enable displaced persons to return home.

The general said he was in Darfur to get first-hand knowledge of the situation and of the assistance being offered to internally displaced persons.

The fighting in the western region of Darfur has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with up to 50,000 civilians killed since February 2003, according to the United Nations, and 1.2 million driven from their homes.

The conflict pits Arab militias fighting alongside regular Sudanese forces against two black African rebel groups, which rose up against Khartoum last year.

Efforts by the AU and the UN to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table have so far proved fruitless.

The African Union said on Wednesday that Arab militiamen had recently burned alive civilians in Darfur, as the United States sought backing for a tough UN Security Council resolution to end the crisis.

“The attackers looted the market and killed civilians, in some cases chaining them and burning them alive,” said a report by AU ceasefire observers.