S. Africa’s Mbeki to press Sudan on Darfur peacekeepers
April 9, 2007 (JOHANNESBURG) — South African President Thabo Mbeki is to travel to Sudan on Tuesday in a bid to persuade the government in Khartoum to accept a beefed up peacekeeping force in the war-torn Darfur region.
Mbeki, who will be accompanied on the visit by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, will meet with his counterpart Omar el-Beshir in Khartoum as well as travel to Juba which is the capital of autonomous southern Sudan, according to a South African government statement.
South Africa, currently a member of the United Nations Security Council, wants UN peacekeepers to supplement an ill-equipped and under-funded African Union force which has failed to stem the violence in Darfur.
The government statement that Mbeki’s visit “takes place within the context of South Africa’s priority to encourage the full implementation of the AU-UN agreement on the hybrid force for Darfur”.
Beshir has so far rejected the deployment of UN troops to join the AU force, which was proposed last year, saying the West was plotting neo-colonialism in Africa’s largest nation.
The pressure on the government in Khartoum to accept the hybrid force has mounted since the death of five African Union peacekeepers earlier this month but Beshir insists the UN involvement be restricted to logistics.
The 7,000 strong AU force currently on the ground in Darfur includes a contingent of several hundred South African troops.
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.
After travelling to Juba on Wednesday, where he will meet First Vice President Salva Kiir, Mbeki is set to head to Paris for talks with French counterpart Jacques Chirac on Thursday.
(AFP)