Egypt to support S. Sudan’s peace process

Sept 17, 2005 (ALEXANDRIA) — Egypt agreed to boost its support for southern Sudan following January’s landmark peace deal between the government and southern rebels in talks between President Hosni Mubarak and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir.

Egypt agreed to open a consulate and a branch of the University of Alexandria in the main southern Sudanese city of Juba and to build a hospital in the region, Mubarak’s spokesman Suleiman Awad said.

During his three-hour visit to Egypt’s second city of Alexandria, Beshir also set out his government’s position on the continuing conflicts in Darfur and eastern Sudan, Awad said.

“The situation in Darfur is extremely complicated but not insoluble,” the spokesman said.

A new round of peace talks between the government and the Darfur rebels opened in Abuja Friday without the participation of one faction of the largest ethnic minority rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement.

The more than two-year-old conflict in the western region has left as many as 300,000 dead and more than two million displaced and sparked war crimes charges against Sudanese security commanders and government officials.

(AFP/ST)