AU mediators to brief partners on Darfur talks

ABUJA, June 14 (AFP) — African mediators were due Tuesday to brief partners about progress on talks aimed at ending the civil war in Sudan’s western region of Darfur that is fast becoming the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim (L) and African Union (AU) secretary general Alpha Konare (R) attend a summit on Darfur crisis in Abuja. (AFP).

AU officials, mediating in Nigeria between Sudan’s government and two rebel groups, held a meeting behind closed doors with foreign donors, observers and facilitators to say where they had got in separate talks with the warring parties, AU spokesman Nouredine Mezni told AFP.

The talks in the Nigerian capital are aimed at ending more than two years of civil war that has claimed between 180,000 and 300,000 lives, displaced around 2.4 million and sent more than 200,000 fleeing to neighbouring Chad.

Negotiations between the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) resumed in the Nigerian capital on Friday after a six-month suspension because the parties accused each other of ceasefire violations.

The AU special envoy on Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim, addressed the partners from the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League, and the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Norway, among others, Mezni said.

Mezni said the AU mediators also presented a tentative programme for the endorsement of the partners.

Delegates at the resumption of talks Tuesday afternoon began to look at the proposals submitted by the government in Khartoum and the JEM in response to a joint declaration of principle, with a view to harmonising their positions and ratifying the document, Mezni said.

The SLM has yet to submit its proposal on the document.

In the past three days, Salim has twice briefed the AU chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, on development at the Darfur peace talks, he said.

US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has also telephoned Salim to express his government’s support for the talks and AU efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis, Mezni added.

Violence broke out in Darfur in February 2003 when a rebel uprising led Khartoum to unleash Arab militias known as the Janjaweed in a scorched-earth campaign. The Janjaweed have been accused of “ethnic cleansing”, torture, rape and intimidation.

Humanitarian officials have warned the situation in Darfur is becoming increasingly desperate, with insufficient funding to meet the crisis aggravated by drought, famine and the long-term effects of conflict.

The declaration of principle was adopted during the last round of the peace talks in Abuja last December.

Salim said “consultations gave the parties an opportunity to make comments, observations and suggestions on the draft declaration of principle”.

“The bilateral meetings were attended by Nigeria and Libya — the two facilitators at the talks,” Mezni said.

The AU announced late last month it had received 292 million dollars (240 million euros) in donations.

But it wants more than 460 million dollars in cash, military equipment and logistical support to boost the AU force monitoring the Darfur truce from the current 2,700 soldiers — from Nigeria and Rwanda — to more than 7,700 by September.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European Union have agreed to move swiftly to help expand the AU peacekeeping force with an airlift of some 5,000 troops to Darfur, possibly as early as July.

A senior AU delegation was in Darfur two weeks ago to assess humanitarian needs, after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visited the region and called on the international community to find a rapid solution to the crisis.