U.N. delegation to assess needs in Sudan’s Darfur region in April

KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 11, 2004 (AP) — Sudan will welcome a high-level U.N. Nations mission later this month to assess humanitarian needs in the troubled western Darfur region and cooperate in the delivery of aid, a government minister said Sunday.

Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Hamid made the announcement after a meeting with representatives of the U.N. and other nongovernmental organizations in Khartoum.

“We have agreed to cooperate and work together in accordance with the principles of the United Nations,” Hamid said. “We have also agreed on setting up a committee to work out an emergency relief program for Darfur.”

Hamid said the government is committed to the relief of the people affected by the fighting that started in February 2003.

The 10-member team led by Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, will visit each of the three regions of Darfur from April 18 to 21, during a 45-day cease-fire signed Thursday by the government and rebels to allow humanitarian agencies into the area and provide a window to reach a peace agreement.

Thousands of people have been killed and more than 860,000 others forced to flee their homes in Darfur, an impoverished region of Sudan that borders Chad, since two main rebel groups took up arms in February 2003 to fight for a share in power and wealth.

U.N. officials and human rights groups have said Arab militia groups, reportedly with Sudanese government backing, are engaged in “ethnic cleansing” against Africans in Darfur. The two rebel groups, along with refugees, have accused the government of bombing and attacking civilians.

The government has denied the allegations.

President Omar el-Bashir on Sunday flew to Chad, where President Idriss Deby and his team of mediators have been helping forge a deal between the two sides, leading to the cease-fire.

“The president thanked President Deby for the success of the round of the peace talks and stressed the commitment of the Sudanese government to implement the agreement, concerning the humanitarian assistance, the cease-fire and the comprehensive political settlement for the Darfur question,” Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters after the president’s return.

Meanwhile, Sudanese security forces released 59 people detained in North Darfur state as part of the implementation of the cease-fire agreement and a gesture toward helping the peace efforts, the official Sudan Media Center reported.