AU calls for suitable climate in Darfur for refugees’ return

Jun 22, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission Alpha Oumar Konare on Thursday stressed the necessity to improve the security situation in Sudan’s western region of Darfur to create a suitable climate for the repatriation of refugees.

While meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in al-Fashir, the biggest city in Darfur, Konare said that “the security situation outside refugee camps and villages must be improved because the refugees will certainly return to their homelands.”

“We can not let the residents in Darfur to be the residents of camps forever,” the AU official underlined.

He said that most refugees whom he met in the camps had expressed their desire to return to their villages if the security was guaranteed and the services of food, health and education were provided.

“But the situation on the ground is still difficult and a lot of works are needed in order to improve it,” added Konare.

He praised that the 7,800-strong AU forces, which are carrying out the mission of maintaining the security in Darfur, were exerting great efforts for stabilizing the situation in the region.

Konare also stressed the necessity of implementing the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed between the Sudanese government and a main Darfur rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5.

“The DPA has created a positive climate which must be invested and enhanced,” he said, adding that it was necessary to accumulate the support for the agreement, to propagate it and clarify its positivities to the Darfurians.

Konare came to Khartoum earlier on Thursday after a three-day journey in Darfur, where he visited the states of North Darfur and South Darfur and held meetings with local officials, inspected the AU forces and was highlighted by the NGOs on the situation in the region.

Later on Thursday, he is scheduled to hold talks with Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on the DPA and a suggested transition of the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur to the United Nations.