Mini AU summit on Darfur to convene Sunday in Libya
CAIRO, Oct 15 (AFP) — A mini-African Union summit on the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region that Libya has offered to host will convene on Sunday, an Egyptian presidential source confirmed Friday.
Sudan’s neighbors Chad and Egypt have been invited for the one-day summit, which will also be attended by Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo in his capacity as current chairman of the AU.
Darfur’s two main rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), will also take part in the meeting.
Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdul Fattah said earlier this month that one of the objectives of the summit would be to try to determine the prospects the AU itself to resolve the crisis.
The summit would also attempt to figure out how to avoid further “internationalization” of the Darfur crisis and spare the Sudanese government from the looming threat of sanctions, he said.
The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in September that threatened sanctions on Sudan’s vital oil industry if the government fails to follow through on a pledge to disarm pro-government Arab militias.
Militia groups such as the notorious Janjaweed have been blamed for many atrocities in the region, including rape, murder and the destruction of farming villages.
The mini-summit will convene only days before the opening of a new round of AU-sponsored peace negotiations in the Nigerian capital of Abuja between the Sudanese government and the SLM and JEM rebel groups.
The UN says the 20-month conflict between government forces and rebels has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
In figures revised Friday, it estimates that up to 70,000 people have died in the conflict, some 1.4 million have been displaced from their homes and a further 200,000 forced to flee to neighboring Chad.
Increased efforts by regional leaders to settle the Darfur crisis come amid mounting pressure on Khartoum to deliver on pledges it has made on stabilizing the humanitarian and security situation in the region.