Former world leaders, laureates to visit Darfur

September 17, 2007 (JOHANNESBURG) — A council of peacemaking world leaders and Nobel laureates launched by former President Nelson Mandela is taking up Darfur as its first mission, with a trip to Sudan planned later this month, the organization said Monday.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs the group known as The Elders, will lead a delegation that will include former U.S. president Jimmy Carter; Mandela’s wife Graca Machel, a long time campaigner for children’s rights; and Lakhdar Brahimi, a former U.N. envoy to Iraq. Mandela won’t be part of the mission.

“We want the suffering to end – and we hope to contribute to that,” Tutu said in a statement.

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced in four years of fighting between rebel groups and government-backed militias.

Tutu’s delegation, which will be in Sudan from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, will meet in Sudan’s capital with government and opposition, civil society and international organization representatives, and will then travel to Darfur to visit local community leaders and displaced people.

(AP)