AU chief discusses Darfur with Sudan’s Beshir

April 7, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The chairman of African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, met Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Saturday for discussions over the war-torn region of Darfur, state radio reported.

Konare, accompanied by AU security chief Said Djinnit, discussed with Beshir ways to resolve the situation in Darfur where some 7,000 AU peacekeepers are stationed, Omdurman radio said.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol, who attended the meeting, described the talks as fruitful.

He said the AU officials and Beshir also discussed a meeting scheduled for Monday in Addis Ababa among representatives from Sudan, the AU and the United Nations to discuss the nature of a UN-AU peacekeeping force in the western Sudanese region.

Beshir has rejected the deployment of a UN force, which was proposed last year, to join the AU force, saying the West was plotting to invade his country and plunder its resources.

Konare and Djinnit had met earlier with Minni Minnawi, who heads the main faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, the only group to sign a peace deal with Khartoum last year.

Minnawi’s men are suspected of having attacked and killed five Senegalese AU peacekeepers on April 1, bringing the number of peacekeepers killed in Darfur to 15 since they were first deployed in 2004.

According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003. Some sources say the death toll is much higher.

(AFP)