Obasanjo supports Sudan to chair AU
Jan 21, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s endeavor to win the right to chair African Union (AU), the 53-member regional bloc, has obtained support from AU chairman Olusegun Obasanjo, a Sudanese official said here on Saturday.
Al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, the country’s minister of information and communication, said Obasanjo, also the president of Nigeria, has spoken on this matter and said he supported Sudan.
“We have very strong relations with Nigeria and we hope that Obasanjo will play a role as a wise man in Africa to support Sudan’s competition for the chairmanship,” said al-Zahawi.
Khartoum has earlier claimed that it has obtained the support from the majority of African countries including Egypt and eastern African countries.
Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir is a candidate for the rotating presidency, expected to be finalized by the 53 member states at their sixth summit in Khartoum early next week.
Sudan’s hosting of the summit, which according to the AU’s tradition could automatically give the country the chairmanship ofthe AU, has been opposed by its neighbor Chad and a group of nongovernmental organizations, which said Sudan is too “aggressive” to be awarded such a high diplomatic position.
Chad has accused Khartoum of sheltering and backing Chadian rebels in its violent Darfur region and the dispute is adding to insecurity in the area.
Sudan’s two main rebel groups fighting in the western Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, have reportedly threatened to walk out of AU-sponsored peace talks, currently being held in Abuja, Nigeria, if African leaders elect Al-Bashir to the AU presidency.
The Darfur conflict, which pits the two rebel groups against the Sudanese government since February 2003, has claimed thousands of lives and driven more than one million others from their homes.
The groups argued that Khartoum “cannot be both the judge and aparty of the conflict,” adding that awarding the chairmanship to Al-Bashir would damage the AU’s credibility as it is making efforts to solve regional conflicts.
(Xinhua)