Russian FM discusses Sudan with Powell: ministry

MOSCOW, July 26 (AFP) — Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Colin Powell have discussed by telephone the situation in Sudan, the foreign ministry said Monday.

“We discussed the state of affairs in Sudan and the reaction of the international community to the difficult humanitarian situation in this country, including in the shape of a UN Security Council resolution,” the ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov and Powell held the telephone conversation on Sunday, it said.

The United Nations, describing the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region as currently the world’s worst, says up to 50,000 people have died since a revolt against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum broke out among black African ethnic minorities in February 2003.

A rebel movement in Darfur has called for a deployment of international troops to deal with the humanitarian crisis in the country in northeast Africa.

The Sudanese government has come out against the idea.

The conflict in Darfur has claimed between 30,000 and 50,000 lives and about 1.2 million have been displaced, with around 200,000 people taking refuge in neighboring Chad, according to UN officials.