Obasanjo optimistic ahead of AU talks on Darfur crisis

ABUJA, Aug 10 (AFP) — Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo is confident that talks he will host later this month between the Sudanese government and rebel leaders will resolve the Darfur crisis, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

As chairman of the African Union, Obasanjo has invited the parties to the conflict to attend talks in Abuja on August 23 in order to find a way to end a war which has killed up to 50,000 people in the last year.

“The president is optimistic that he will be able, alongside others, to ensure that peace returns to Darfur and Sudan,” spokeswoman Remi Oyo told AFP.

“The talks among all stakeholders in the current crisis in Sudan will take place in Nigeria. It follows on the heels of President Obasanjo’s visit last week to Khartoum, in which he held meetings with President Omar al-Beshir.

“President al-Beshir has given the assurance that his government was willing to meet with all other stakeholders anywhere,” she said.

Asked if Nigeria was confident that Darfur’s rebel leaders would attend the meeting, Oyo said: “President Obasanjo enjoys a lot of confidence within Africa and outside Africa.

“People believe in him, they see him as an impartial arbiter and so we do not have any problems with the stakeholders who will be there,” she said.

The African Union is spearheading international attempts to persuade the Sudanese government and insurgents in the western province of Darfur to find a negotiated end to their conflict and head off a humanitarian disaster.

Plans are being drawn up to deploy 2,000 Nigerian and Rwandan troops to the the region as peacekeepers if an agreement on their status can be reached with the warring parties.

The United Nations has called the attacks on civilians in Darfur and the resulting refugee exodus the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the US Congress has passed a motion accusing a government backed militia of genocide.