New calls for Kadhafi’s intervention in Darfur

6 August 2004
In Peace process

TRIPOLI, Libya, Aug 05, 2004 (PANA) — Popular and official calls on Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Kadhafi to channel the African Union’s efforts towards finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis facing Sudan’s western region of Darfur have been reaching Tripoli, the country’s capital.

According to the Libyan News Agency, JANA, the chairman of the Democratic Unionist Party, a Sudanese opposition party, reiterated in a message to Kadhafi his wish to see the latter get involved in the management of the situation in the Darfur on behalf of the AU.

The message in question was handed by an envoy of the Sudanese politician to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs before the Libyan people’s general congress, Souleiman Chehoumi.

Moreover, the Chadian public health minister, Aziza Baroud, exhorted the Libyan leader to intervene to stop the deteriorating of the humanitarian situation and to ensure that international humanitarian aid gets to disaster victims in Darfur.

In an interview held Thursday in Tripoli with the Secretary General of the Community of Sahelo-Saharan states (CEN-SAD), Mohamed Al-Madani Al-Azhari, Baroud briefed the hosts on the situation of Sudanese refugees in Chad and the difficult health conditions they are facing there.

Al-Azhari laid emphasis on the “importance” Colonel Kadhafi attached to security and stability of the Darfur area but also in the other regions of the African continent in line with the mandate arising from the CEN-SAD N’Djamena and Khartoum summits, whereby the Libyan revolutionary leader is to sponsor peace in that regional space and beyond.

Nigerian head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU current chairman, paid last Sunday a brief visit to Syrte (450 East of Tripoli) where he had talks with Colonel Kadhafi whom he invited to intervene to sponsor peace negotiations in Darfur.

On its part, Sudan affirmed, through the voice of several of its authorities, the need to see the Libyan revolutionary leader intervene to accelerate the return of security and stability in that disaster-stricken region.

Reliable sources in Tripoli told PANA that preparations are currently under way for the ferrying of aid to the Darfur via the port of Benghazi (1,050 km east of Tripoli), pursuant to an agreement concluded on 15 July in Tripoli between Libyan authorities and the World Food Programme (WFP).