Egypt urges Darfur rebels to support Sudan peace initiative

CAIRO, Oct 18 (AFP) — Egypt urged rebels in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region on Monday to support President Omar el-Bashir’s peace initiative announced at an African summit on the Darfur crisis.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit [photo] made the call a day after leaders of Sudan, Libya, Nigeria, Chad and Egypt held a mini-summit in Libya during which Bashir outlined a series of proposals to resolve the conflict.

They included granting greater autonomy for the region under an existing federal system, fair distribution of power and resources and establishing a system that allows for a peaceful rotation of power in the country.

Abul Gheit said these principles “open the way, for the first time perhaps, for an active political effort that may result in a breakthrough in the political situation in Darfur.”

Direct talks between the rebel groups and the Sudanese government are due to resume on October 21 in Nigeria, which currently chairs the African Union (AU).

The Egyptian minister added that the ideas put forward by Bashir showed he was serious about resolving the 20-month-old conflict and appealed to the international community to rally around it.

The UN says 50,000 people have died and a further 1.4 million been displaced in the conflict, which it describes as the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis.