Nigeria condemns Sudan stance towards AU efforts in Darfur
Mar 23, 2006 (ABUJA) — Nigeria has condemned the Sudanese government for instigating the local population against African Union’s (AU) efforts toward peace in troubled Darfur region, local press said.
Earlier this month Sudan threatened to withdraw from the AU in an effort to thwart a UN takeover of AU peacekeeping mission in the country’s restive western region of Darfur. Also, Khartoum organized demonstrations in Khartoum and orchestrated a press campaign against the AU forces in Darfur.
Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Olu Adeniji who appeared on a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja at the weekend, said that such blunder was bad for the regional body’s painstaking efforts.
With the government and rebel groups yet to agree on a deal toward permanent peace in Darfur, Adeniji said that the least the government could do was to allow the AU to explore all available peace initiatives.
“Before you get peace, you must talk and that is what the AU is doing. That is where we come in. It is imperative that the government takes note of this,” he declared.
He said that the AU at its Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa, resolved that it should maintain its 7,000 peace keeping force in Darfur, but also unanimously resolved that the UN must now be “greatly involved.”
Adeniji said that maintaining the 7,000 peace keepers in Darfur had been “a very huge problem.”
Arguing further on why the UN should be involved, Adeniji said: “Since the world is a global village, every part of the village must share in the joy and misery of the village.”
He further said that the African troops in Darfur were not sufficient in number and equipment, hence the need for the entire world to contribute.
The minister, however, disagreed that the UN presence might make the AU irrelevant to the Darfur situation.
“To ensure permanent peace, the parties must talk and this is where Africa comes in,” he said.
He specifically noted that the final peace deal for Liberia was sealed in Ghana, while Sierra Leone’s peace efforts was sealed in Nigeria.
Adeniji appealed to the warring parties in Sudan to sheathe their swords and resolve their disagreements on the round table for the sake of the suffering people of Darfur.
“Above all, Africa cannot continue to be the weeping boy of the continent. We have to grow,” he stated.
The warring parties – the Government of Sudan and the two rebel groups, JEM and SLM/A- are currently in the seventh round of peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
(TheTide/ST)