Sudan needs help to end Darfur crisis – Egypt

By Edmund Blair

TRIPOLI, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Sudan’s government has agreed with African leaders meeting in Libya on Sunday to do its best to end the conflict in Darfur that has displaced about 1.5 million people, a senior Egyptian official said.

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, right, and Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail attend a meeting in Tripoli, Libya Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004.

But Maged Abdel Fattah, Egypt’s presidential spokesman, told reporters that Sudan needed more material and other support to end the crisis in its western region and that such help would be more useful than threatening sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council has threatened Sudan with possible sanctions if it does not stop the violence. Aid workers say increasing violence in Darfur is hindering vital aid efforts.

“The government is doing its best in fulfilling its obligations, and there is an agreement with the government that it will do the best possible,” Fattah said as leaders from Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Chad and Nigeria met in Tripoli.

“Sudan cannot do all of these things alone and instead of putting pressure on Sudan or threatening with sanctions … we should all try to help Sudan to implement its obligations in accordance with resolutions,” he said.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Sudan had repeated earlier commitments such as agreeing to more African Union monitors in Darfur, offering aid access and deploying more police in the area.

“We think that it is a very successful summit,” Ismail said.

A closing communique said leaders welcomed Sudan’s efforts to implement commitments made to the United Nations and “expressed hope” Khartoum would continue to take steps demanded by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The leaders also gave their support to AU-sponsored peace talks due to resume on Oct. 21 in Abuja between the government and rebels, who launched their uprising in the in 2003. Talks collapsed last month with both sides blaming each other.

CALLING FOR ASSISTANCE

Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji, whose country is the AU president, said the summit was “calling on all African countries to contribute troops and also on the international community to assist the Africans by giving logistic and financial support.”

The rebels have accused Khartoum of neglecting Darfur, a vast and arid region where Arab nomads and African farmers have long skirmished over scarce resources. The rebels say Sudan has backed the Arab Janjaweed militia to attack non-Arab villages and kill their inhabitants.

Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.

Before the leaders met, African ministers said both sides needed to be pushed to find a solution to the conflict, which the United Nations says has killed an estimated 70,000 people.

“It is necessary to put pressure on the two sides,” Chad’s Foreign Minister Nagoum Yamassoum told Reuters.

The communique said the leaders had authorised Muammar Gaddafi, the summit host who has championed African unity, to contact groups in Darfur until a lasting solution was reached.

The rebels, who are suspicious of Chad and Egypt because they view them as siding with Sudan, see Libya as a neutral player who could play a role in resolving the dispute. They also see Nigeria as an honest broker.

Although not attending the summit, Darfur rebels have travelled to Tripoli at the invitation of Gaddafi, who they said wanted to hear their concerns.

“We are going to accelerate and to facilitate the process of peace and negotiation between all sides,” Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said before the summit.