African and Arab ministers to discuss Darfur peace process

September 19, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — African and Arab foreign ministers will discuss Darfur peace process on the sidelines of the UN Assembly General meeting in New York, the Arab League announced yesterday.

Since September 2008, the Arab League and the African Union formed a joint committee to work out a mediation to end the ongoing conflict in Darfur where 300000 people were killed and more than 2.5 million are displaced. They also formed a joint committee to support the action of the AU-UN mediator Djibril Bassole.

Ambassador Hesham Youssef, chief of the Office of the Secretary-General of the Arab League said a joint African-Arab meeting would be held on Thursday September 24 in New York to discuss the latest developments on Darfur peace process.

The purpose of this meeting is to tackle the ongoing efforts to reunite the Darfur rebel factions after the initiatives engaged by Egypt and Libya in this regard.

Libya has successfully reunited some six rebel factions who established Sudan’s Liberation Revolutionary Forces (SLRF) on August 31.

Egypt had attempted in vain to create one structure last July for some of these rebel groups of the SLRF and others who are now engaged in a reunification process sponsored by the US envoy to Sudan.

However, Cairo remains in good contacts with the United Resistance Front (URF) of Idriss Abu Garda.

Youssef praised the efforts conducted by Doha to achieve peace Darfur. Qatar is the host country of Darfur peace process.

The Qatari officials agreed recently with the AU-UN mediator for Darfur peace to hold next month a workshop for all Darfur rebel groups, to organize a meeting for the civil society organizations in the restive province and to organize direct talks between rebels and government delegations at the end of the month.

(ST)