Egypt urges Sudan to seek comprehensive Darfur peace

May 7, 2007 (CAIRO) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday urged his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir to seek a comprehensive Darfur peace deal modeled on the agreement that ended Sudan’s 21-year north-south war.

“There is no alternative to the broadening of the Abuja accord to include all rebel factions,” Mubarak’s spokesman Suleiman Awwad told reporters after the two presidents met.

Khartoum reached a peace agreement with Darfur rebels on May 5, 2006 in Nigeria but only one of three negotiating rebel factions endorsed the deal and violence has since spiralled.

Holdout rebel groups have supported international calls for sanctions against Beshir’s regime and the deployment of a robust UN peacekeeping force to prop up the embattled African Union contingent already on the ground.

Mubarak stressed that a peace deal in Darfur should be “inspired by the Machakos protocols and Naivasha agreement.”

He was referring to peace talks in two Kenyan towns that led to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005 between Khartoum and southern rebels, ending what was then Africa’s longest-running civil war.

Awwad said Egypt would only send additional police and army forces to Darfur if a more inclusive peace agreement was reached there.

Western powers and the United Nations have grown impatient with Khartoum over its refusal to welcome UN peacekeepers, prompting US and British threats of further sanctions against the Sudanese government.

Mubarak, a close Khartoum ally, reiterated his opposition to new sanctions on Egypt’s southern neighbour.

“President Mubarak stressed that Egypt saw as inappropriate the attempt by some international powers to increase the pressure on Sudan,” Awwad said.

Khartoum recently accepted the first two phases of a UN peacekeeping plan for Darfur but has stalled the final and most contentious stage which is supposed to see the creation of a 20,000-strong “hybrid” UN-AU force.

(AFP)