Eritrea’s Afeworki in Khartoum for talks on Darfur, east Sudan
April 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki arrived in Sudan on Saturday determined to kick-start talks to end the violence in Darfur, a senior Sudanese official said.
The meetings will be part of “efforts toward a political solution” in Darfur that includes those rebel groups that did not sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum, said Mustafa Osman, an aide to President Omar al-Beshir.
Eritrea also mediated peace between Khartoum and eastern Sudan rebels that ended 12 years of insurgency with an accord in October, and Issaias is also expected to touch on that in his talks.
Under the deal, the Sudanese government agreed to invest 600 million dollars in the impoverished east of the country over five years.
Last month, Issaias and Beshir agreed to develop areas along their common borders, which could help to defuse the long-standing tensions between the two countries.
Regarding Darfur, Osman said on Thursday that “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.”
He was speaking after London and Washington on Wednesday threatened Sudan with sanctions, accusing it of not doing enough to end the conflict.
The 2006 peace deal was signed 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 on Thursday 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)