Sudan demands South Africa mediation in Darfur conflict

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Sudan has asked South Africa to mediate on Darfur, the South African foreign minister said Tuesday as attempts to end a conflict that has killed more than 200,000 and forced 2.5 million from their homes appeared to founder.

Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir made the request to his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki at a meeting Tuesday, a day after a spokesman for U.N. and African Union mediators pressed Darfur rebels to come to peace talks in Libya.

UN-AU-brokered talks opened late last month in the Libyan coastal town of Sirte without several prominent rebel leaders. Days later, a Sudanese government official said the talks would be postponed until December.

Different rebel groups contest the choice of Libya as venue for the peace talks. They describe Libyan government as unneutral in its position in the four-year conflict.

The mediation team had chosen Libya for its capacity to “deliver rebels” to the talks.

(ST/AP)