Garang, Mahdi, Mirghani to discuss in Cairo Darfur crisis

KHARTOUM, July 10, 2004 (KUNA/ST) — The Sudanese National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) leader Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) chairman John Garang, and the Ummah Party’s chief al-Sadeq al-Mahdi will all meet next week in Cairo to discuss the situation in Darfur.

The tripartite meeting will be preceded in mid-week by a meeting of the (NDA)direction in Asmara, the capital of Eritria, where peace efforts in the South of Sudan and the crisis in Darfur will be discussed.

A spokesman for the NDA, the Sudanese opposition parties’ umbrella body, told KUNA here that the tripartite meeting will take into consideration the deteriorating condition of the population of Darfur and means of speeding up relief and succour to them.

He said he hoped that unanimous views of the suffering of the people of Darfur would prevail in the forthcoming meeting of the three leaders and that aid to the people of Darfur would be sent expeditiously.

The chief of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and chairman of the NDA, Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, arrived yesterday in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

A number of the leadership and executive bodies of the NDA from various parts of the world, including those from Nairobi and western European, also arrived there today to attend NDA meetings which are to kick off today.