US seeks Libyan help on Darfur force

March 10, 2007 (TRIPOLI) — The US envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, called on Saturday for Libya to help convince Khartoum to accept a UN force for its war-torn western region of Darfur.

At the end of a two-day visit, he said Washington wanted Libya to encourage Sudan to drop its opposition to a joint UN-African Union (AU) force that would be led and supervised by the United Nations.

The United States supports the AU role in support of peace efforts but the role of the United Nations is “crucial” to reinforce the mission, the envoy said in a statement.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, in a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, has insisted that the AU must remain in control of any joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

The proposed AU-UN force of 20,000 soldiers is meant to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from the 7,000 AU troops who have failed to stop the bloodshed which erupted in February 2003.

The war in Darfur broke out when rebels from minority tribes in the vast western region took up arms to demand an equal share of national resources, prompting a heavy-handed crackdown from Sudanese government forces and their Janjaweed proxy militia.

According to UN estimates, 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.

Libya hosted a February 21 summit in Tripoli with Beshir, Eritrea’s President Issaias Afeworki and Chad’s President Idriss Deby to discuss the Darfur crisis.

(AFP)