Mauritania will send observers to Darfur: FM

NOUAKCHOTT, Oct 31 (AFP) — Mauritania will send observers to western Sudan’s conflict-ravaged province of Darfur to help an African Unionmission to monitor a shaky ceasefire there, Mauritanian Foreign Minister Mohamed Vall Ould Bellal said on Sunday.

“For the time being we are sending observers to this region,” he said in response to a question from Sudanese television, on whether the northwestern African country was planning to send troops to Darfur.

Since February 2003, Darfur has been a theatre of clashes that, according to several humanitarian groups, have claimed up to 70,000 lives and displaced 1.5 million others.

Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismael said on Sunday after an audience with Mauritanian President Maaouiya Ould Taya, that the leader had said Mauritania “was prepared to contribute to the solutions of the problems they are faced with.”