AU’s Konare, Japanese PM to discuss Darfur crisis

July 21, 2006 (TOKYO) — Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union Commission, will visit Japan next week to discuss a medical science award for Africa as well as the situation of Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, the Japanese Kyodo reported.

Konare, who will be in Japan from Monday through Friday, will meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday to discuss details of selecting recipients for the Hideyo Noguchi award which the premier unveiled on his trip to Ghana in May.

The award is intended for medical researchers and personnel working for Africa. It is named after Noguchi, a Japanese scientist who died of yellow fever in Ghana in 1928 while conducting research on the disease.

Konare is scheduled to meet with former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the first Japanese premier to visit sub-Saharan Africa, and speak on Africa’s regional cooperation at the United Nations University.

(ST)