Sudan’s Bashir, Eritrean Afeworki to discuss Darfur talks
April 19, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and his Eritrean counterpart will on Saturday discuss how to kick-start peace talks with rebels who refused to sign a peace accord to end the violence in Darfur.
The visit by President Issaias Afeworki, who has long mediated between Khartoum and holdout rebel groups, is part of “efforts for a political solution in Darfur to include the non-signatories,” Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman said on Thursday.
“We have always been ready to hold talks with any group, wherever and without conditions, but it is the United States and Great Britain that are putting a spanner in the works,” Osman said after London and Washington on Wednesday threatened Sudan with sanctions, accusing it of not doing enough to end the conflict.
A peace deal was signed in May 2006 between Khartoum and just one of three negotiating Darfur rebel factions, with the aim of ending the conflict.
At least 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than two million driven from their homes, according to the United Nations. Khartoum disputes those figures, but some sources say the death toll is much higher.
Osman also said that Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno would visit Khartoum in the coming days, to smooth bilateral relations which nosedived after deadly border clashes between forces of the neighbouring countries earlier this month.
Asmara sent an envoy to Tripoli last week to join talks between Sudanese and Chadian officials aimed at easing tensions.
Chad has since apologised for the cross-border action of its forces, explaining that it was not deliberate and that they were in hot pursuit of rebels who had just attacked several Chadian villages.
Sudan says it lost 17 of its troops in the attack and the Chadians say 30 were killed overall.
Chad and Sudan accuse each other of supporting rebel forces in their respective territories amid international fears that the continuing strife in Sudan’s western Darfur region will spill over into Chad and ignite a regional war.
“The normalisation of Sudanese-Chadian relations is an essential element in the search for a solution in Darfur,” Osman said on Thursday.
(AFP)