Ethiopia and France support international effort for Darfur peace

November 20, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) –Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin joined French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Thursday in recommending international involvement in Darfur peace efforts.

France currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Speaking at an African Union (AU) – European Union (EU) ministerial-level meeting in Ethiopia’s capital, the top French diplomat said that the situation in Darfur should not be handled by the regional players alone.

Kouchner and Mesfin suggested instead that the United Nations Security Council, EU and AU should collaborate to bring peace and stability to Sudan.

The ministers also held discussions on the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the piracy and warfare in Somalia, which Ethiopia invaded in late 2006.

France and Ethiopia agreed to support AU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)—an organization of regional states—in their efforts in Somalia.

Thus far these efforts have resulted in the deployment of Ugandan peacekeepers to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, but the president of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, which the government of Ethiopia has backed, announced on Saturday that his government controls only small beleaguered areas of Mogadishu and Baidoa.

Kouchner intends to meet with the leaders of the AU Commission.

(ST)