EU envoy postpones visit to Sudan

THE HAGUE, Sept 5 (AFP) — Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country currently presides over the European Union, has postponed a trip this week to Sudan to discuss the Darfur crisis due to scheduling conflicts, Bot’s spokesman said Sunday.

“The trip had been postponed because both the Sudanese president and the foreign minister are likely not to be in Sudan on that date. We want to speak to the highest officials,” spokesman Bart Jochems explained.

He said a new date will be set, hopefully in the coming weeks, adding that the “Sudanese government has assured us they welcome this visit.”

The European Union on Saturday renewed a threat to slap sanctions on the Sudanese government if it does not do more to rein in militias in the western Darfur region, where fighting has pitted rebel groups against pro-government forces since February last year and a million people face hunger.

According to UN estimates, up to 50,000 people have died in Darfur, about 1.4 million people have fled their homes with about 180,000 crossing the border into Chad.