Canadian diplomats join Darfur peace talks
May 4, 2006 (OTTAWA) — Two top Canadian diplomats were summoned to the Nigerian presidential palace Thursday as part of a small team of international negotiators hunkered down for a crucial night of peace talks on Sudan’s Darfur region.
Canada’s high commissioner for Nigeria, David Angell, and United Nations Ambassador Allan Rock were joined by officials from the United States, Britain and the European Union at President Olusegun Obasanjo’s residence in Abuja.
The group was holding a final strategy session before meeting with rebel leaders from Sudan’s Darfur region and Sudanese government officials.
Diplomats have flown in from around the world over the past week to try to salvage a peace deal that has been 18 months in the making.
A new deadline was set for midnight Thursday night.
“It’s closer than it’s ever been,” said a senior Canadian source.
The international team, steered in recent days by top U.S. and British officials, has been reworking a peace deal to try and meet the demands of the Darfur rebel groups.
The rebels are calling for more security for their people – namely the disarmament of government-funded Arab militias – and for a greater share of power in the Sudanese government.
While the Sudanese government signed on to the last draft of the peace accord, they are not guaranteed to agree to the new version.
“The government of Sudan is difficult all around,” said the source. “Before it believed it had outflanked the rebel movement, but now this is a different ballgame.”
An estimated 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 in the Darfur region, and about three million have been displaced.
The conflict has also threatened stability in neighbouring countries, particularly Chad.
Canada has contributed humanitarian aid to the country, as well as military equipment and Canadian Forces logistical staff to help African Union forces trying to quell the violence.
The African Union has now called for the assistance of the United Nations. The UN is studying the possibility of a peacekeeping force, but that would happen only if a peace accord is signed.
(CP)