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Sudan Tribune

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France to participate in Sudan donors conference?

Renaud_Muselier.jpg‏PARIS, June 2, 2004 (KUNA) — France will send Thursday its Junior Minister for ‏‏Foreign Affairs, State Secretary Renaud Muselier to attend the donors ‏‏conference for the Darfur region of Sudan, official sources announced on ‏‏Wednesday.‏

‏The Sudan meeting, scheduled to take place in Geneva, aims to highlight the ‏‏disastrous humanitarian situation affecting the civilian population of Darfur, ‏‏Western Sudan, which has been caught up in a war opposing the government ‏‏forces in Khartoum and opposition rebels.‏

“The humanitarian situation in the Darfur region will be examined, as well ‏‏as the question of the protection of civilian populations victim of the ‏‏ongoing armed conflict,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said.‏

The need for humanitarian organizations to have access to the region is ‏‏also one of the key questions on the agenda for the Geneva talks.‏

Many organizations say that Sudanese authorities have been preventing them ‏‏from reaching refugees displaced by the fighting and in great distress.‏

The distribution of aid to these remote regions will also be one of the ‏‏questions under examination by the Ministerial-level meeting.‏

France said on Wednesday that the presence of its Junior Minister for ‏‏Foreign Affairs attests to the concern felt in Paris about the situation in ‏‏Western Sudan and also underlines French availability to take part in efforts ‏‏to find a solution to the conflict.‏

The French government has been particularly active over the past several ‏‏months in maintaining contacts with Khartoum over the negotiations for an end ‏‏to violence between Sudan and a number of rebel groups.‏

A number of Ministers, including the French Foreign and Trade Ministers, ‏‏visited Khartoum to promote peace and offer support.‏

Agreements have been reached with all rebels groups except for the Darfur ‏‏region and France has been urging a rapid solution to this problem in exchange ‏‏for economic aid and investment and improved ties between Paris and Khartoum.

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