Sudan, Chad presidents, top AU officials to discuss Darfur Thursday

ADDIS ABABA, July 7 (AFP) — The presidents of Sudan and Chad as well as top officials in the African Union (AU) are due to meet in Addis Ababa on Thursday to discuss the crisis in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

Joining Sudan’s Omar el-Beshir and Chad’s Idriss Deby will be AU Chairman and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, the AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, AU officials said on the sidelines of the organization’s third summit here.

The AU has chosen Darfur, where 15 months of conflict have spawned what the UN has termed the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, as a test case for its new trouble-shooting Peace and Security Council (PSC).

The PSC has already begun deploying ceasefire observers in Darfur and plans to bolster this mission with an armed protection force.

The conflict has left more than 10,000 dead and forced more than a million people from their homes, including more than 120,000 to Chad, which has played a mediating role in negotiations between Khartoum and two rebel groups who rose up in February 2003.

Thursday’s meeting follows proposals Beshir made during the AU summit, according to a Chadian official.