Khartoum to brief UN on compliance with accord on Darfur

NEW YORK, UN, Aug 19, 2004 (PANA) — The Sudanese government is expected to provide UN officials with details on further steps it plans to take to meet earlier pledges to restore security to strife-torn Darfur and to protect the area’s massive population of internally displaced persons (IDPs), a UN spokesman indicated Wednesday.

During the fourth meeting of the Joint Implementation Mechanism (JIM) in Khartoum, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail is expected to present a list of the marauding Janjaweed militia groups the government can control.

Briefing reporters Wednesday in New York, UN spokesman Fred
Eckhard said the Sudanese authorities are expected to instruct these militias to stop their attacks and give up their weapons.

Starting next week, JIM members will travel to Darfur to assess progress made by Khartoum in meeting its pledges.

JIM was set up by Khartoum and the UN last month to monitor
commitments made by the two sides to alleviate the humanitarian
crisis in Darfur.

There are more than 1.2 million IDPs living across Darfur,
according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA).

Most fled their home villages because of Janjaweed attacks or
fighting between government forces and two rebel groups operating
in the troubled region. Another 200,000 sought refuge in
neighbouring Chad.

With many IDPs at risk of disease or malnutrition, the World Food
Programme (WFP) has stepped up its relief operations as the
annual rainy season, which makes road travel almost impossible in
some areas, reaches its peak.

Eckhard said WFP was concentrating its latest airlifts around El
Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, which has been hardest hit
by the rains.