Bush praises Darfur accord, pledges $225m in aid

May 8, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — President Bush called for more U.N. peacekeepers for the Darfur region of Sudan on Monday and pledged an increase in U.S. food aid. He also welcomed a proposed peace accord as “the beginnings of hope” for Darfur’s poverty-stricken population.

“Darfur has a chance to begin anew,” Bush said. He said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go to the United Nations on Tuesday to lend support for a new U.N. resolution increasing peacekeepers.

He also said he was asking Congress for another $225 million in emergency food aid for Darfur, was ordering the emergency purchase of 40,000 metric tons of food and was dispatching five ships loaded with food to the region.

Sudanese authorities and Darfur’s main rebel group reached a peace agreement that could help end a conflict that has killed at least 180,000 people in three years and displaced some 2 million.

On Saturday, the president called Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian president who hosted talks on Darfur, and Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the president of the Republic of Congo and current head of the 53-nation African Union.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants Sudan to grant visas to a U.N. assessment team so it can visit Darfur and start planning for a U.N. peacekeeping force to take over from the African Union troops. Sudan has refused to allow the team to visit.

The agreement signed Friday was between the government and the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army; two smaller rebel groups refused to sign.

(ST/AP)