U.S. to push harder for peace in Sudan
KHARTOUM, Feb 12 (AFP) — The Sudanese government said Thursday after talks with visiting US officials that Washington intends to push harder for an end to the 20-year civil war in Sudan when peace talks resume in Kenya next week.
Visiting US acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder told Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail that Washington was closely following the peace process, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The US administration is determined to exert more efforts when the Khartoum government resumes negotiations with the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on February 17 in Naivasha, Kenya, it said.
Snyder endorsed proposals made by Ismail for boosting stability on the Horn of Africa, the statement said without elaborating.
It added that Ismail briefed Snyder on the situation in west Sudan’s Darfur region where a rebellion erupted a year ago amid charges the government had neglected the impoverished region’s economic development.
Ismail also briefed Snyder on measures take by President Omar al-Beshir, such as a general amnesty, safe passage of humanitarian assistance and a call for a conference to discuss peace and development in the region.
Also visiting here was US Agency for International Development (USAID) assistant administrator Roger Winter, who reportedly expressed Washington’s dismay at the slow progress of the negotiations.
Winter met separately with Sudanese Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs Mohammed Yusuf Abdallah.
Although Khartoum and the SPLA have reached a deal to share Sudan’s wealth, particularly oil revenues, the two sides remain deadlocked on several key areas, including power-sharing and the future status of three disputed regions.
The civil war in Sudan, Africa’s largest nation, erupted in 1983 between the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, and the Muslim, Arabized north.
The conflict and war-related famine and disease have claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced an estimated four million people, mostly in the south.