Sudan’s Darfur peace crucial for Africa – AU Chairman
May 12, 2006 (OSLO) — Peace in Sudan and its troubled Darfur province is crucial to the future of the entire African continent, the chairman of the African Union commission said Friday during a visit to Norway.
The chairman, Alpha Oumar Konare, announced at a conference on Africa in Denmark on Thursday that a Darfur rebel group which had refused to sign the peace accord last week in Abuja, Nigeria, was reconsidering its position.
In a letter to the AU, the group rebel leader, Abdel Wahid Nur, expressed interest in reaching an agreement to end fighting that has killed at least 180,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in the troubled Darfur.
“We are in touch with the government of Sudan and the other parties to see what response to give Abdel Wahid Nur,” said Konare, whose comments in Oslo were interpreted from French to Norwegian.
Nur’s faction is the larger of two that rejected the peace accord signed by the Sudan government and Sudanese Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi. Nur’s group is a splinter faction of the movement.
“We must find a way for broaden the agreement in Sudan,” said Konare, speaking after talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. “The agreement is very important, even if two groups have not signed.”
“What happens in Sudan and Darfur is crucial to all of Africa’s future,” he said.
Stoere announced Friday that Norway was donating US$10 million (A7.8 million) to the Africa Union, in support of its continued peace efforts for Sudan.
He also said Norway was prepared to send peacekeepers _ possibly a contingent of 150 to 200 _ if the United Nations Security Council called from them. The troops would be under a U.N. mandate, providing they were invited by the Sudanese government.
Stoere stressed that the 7,200 African Union peacekeepers in Sudan were “worn out.” The force is also low on funds and has had little success in stopping atrocities and re-establishing security, leaving tens of thousands in camps, with little food or water.
Even though the United States and other world powers have called for a U.N. force twice the size of the AU contingent, Sudan has yet to agree.
Konare was to meet other Norwegian officials and a lecture on Africa at the Nobel Institute.
(ST/AP)