Sudan confident in bid to chair African Union

Jan 21, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan is confident of winning support from fellow African countries to become the next leader of the African Union (AU), a decision that would confirm the country’s “new image”.

African leaders gathering in Khartoum for a summit on Monday and Tuesday are to decide whether Sudan should take over the chair of the 53-nation body from Nigeria, despite concerns over the ongoing bloodshed in Darfur.

“We are confident that Sudan will be the chairman of the AU,” said foreign ministry spokesman Gamal Ibrahim Saturay.

“The issue for us is the new image of Sudan that should be recognized,” he said.

“We are coming out of a period of war and conflict that has been going on for over two decades. We need support. Now that we managed to bring peace, we are expecting the African continent to support our efforts,” he said.

Ibrahim said that Khartoum’s bid was supported by 12 countries from east Africa and that heavyweights Egypt and Libya were also backing its candidacy. A senior Egyptian diplomat confirmed that it was supporting Sudan’s bid.

Sudan last year signed a historic accord ending 21 years of war with southern rebels that had left 1.5 million dead and displaced four million peoople.

But the turmoil in the western region of Darfur has continued, despite the dispatch of a 7,000-strong force, the first by the African Union, and is casting a pall over the bid.

Human rights groups came out ahead of the summit to appeal to leaders to find another candidate to lead the AU for the next year, saying that choosing Sudan would be tantamount to rewarding President Omar el-Beshir, who is accused of human rights violations in Darfur and elsewhere.

But Sudan hopes that it can deflect unease by offering to keep Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on as the lead negotiator for the peace process in Darfur, where fighting between government-backed militias and rebels has left 300,000 dead and two million displaced since 2003.

“We have said that Nigeria will continue to lead the Darfur file,” said Ibrahim. “I think that Africans will accept this.”

Darfur rebels, whose two movements announced a merger on Friday, have warned that they will pull out of the ongoing peace talks if Khartoum gets the AU chair.

The only African country to have openly challenged Sudan’s bid is Chad, which last month declared a state of war with Khartoum following an attack on a border town.

South Africa meanwhile has taken the position that it will not oppose east Africa’s choice, a diplomat said.