UN Annan to lead conference on Darfur in Brussels

July 14, 2006 (BRUSSELS) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will lead an international conference in Brussels next week on funding the cash-strapped peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region, EU officials said Friday.

The meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, which will involve 72 delegations, will discuss financial support for the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which could run out of funds as soon as next month.

The conflict in Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, between rebels and militias backed by Sudanese government troops has left some 300,000 people dead and displaced more than two million others since 2003.

African Union (AU) countries sent troops there in 2004 — a force which now numbers around 7,000 personnel — but the peacekeeping mission has suffered from poor funding and has struggled to contain the violence.

“The international community’s goal is to ensure that AMIS can function at its current level until the end of the year,” said an EU diplomat.

On Thursday, EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said AMIS, which is likely to be replaced by a United Nations mission, could continue to operate until mid-August or early September.

“After that, we just don’t have enough money,” he said.

AU leaders agreed at a summit in Gambia early this month to extend their peacekeeping force until the end of the year to allow the UN to finalise its preparations to deploy in the vast troubled region.

Sudanese President Omar El-Beshir has so far refused to allow a UN force into the region, despite repeated requests from the UN Security Council, the African Union and the Arab League.

AU President Oumar Konare, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer and Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol Ajawin are also to attend the conference in Brussels.

(ST)