AU lawmakers meet Darfur rebels in Kenya
NAIROBI, Feb 17 (AFP) — Members of the African Union’s advisory legislature are meeting in Kenya this week with representatives of Darfur’s two main rebel groups in a bid to resolve the continuing conflict in the troubled western region of Sudan, officials said Thursday.
The pan-African parliament’s select committee on Darfur is holding talks with political leaders from the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Nairobi until Sunday, they said.
Committee members previously visited Darfur in November, where they met with Sudanese military commanders and others as part of an ongoing mission to determine the causes of the conflict and restore stability.
“It is imperative that the committee formulates the final report on its mission with inputs from the rebel movements as they are also a critical component of the stakeholders in the Darfur region,” said South African delegate Mighty Madasa.
At least 70,000 people and possibly many tens of thousands more have died after two years of fighting in Darfur, where the government and its proxy militias have brutally put down a rebellion launched in February 2003.
AU-sponsored peace talks between Khartoum and the rebels were suspended last year following accusations by each side that the other was violating an April ceasefire agreement signed in the Chadian capital Ndjamena.
They were due to resume early this year, but no date has been set, and the SLM has said it will not return to the talks unless the people of Darfur get international protection.
On Wednesday, several African leaders wrapped up a summit in Ndjamena aimed at ensuring respect for the ceasefire and getting the talks back on track.
Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir, who attended the meeting, told his colleagues that his armed forces had withdrawn warplanes from the region and appealed to the rebels to return to the talks.
“I call on the rebels and those who back them to come to the negotiating table to find a final solution to the crisis,” he said.