Security Council opens special session on Sudan in Nairobi

NAIROBI, Nov 18 (AFP) — The United Nations Security Council opened an extraordinary two-day session in Nairobi, the first outside its New York headquarters in 14 years, with war-ravaged Sudan topping the agenda.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is present for the meeting, which is expected to adopt a resolution calling on the Khartoum government and southern Sudan’s main rebel group to “conclude speedily” an accord to end their 21-year-civil war.

The international community hopes that such a deal, the subject of two years of intense negotiations in Kenya, will help resolve a separate rebel conflict in the west Sudan region of Darfur.

“It is an unusual meeting… this is a demonstration of very strong interest of the Security Council on the situation in Sudan,” declared this month’s Council President John Danforth of the United States, which was behind the move to hold the session in Nairobi.

He said the Security Council was determined to “ensure Sudan has a strong and viable future.”

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said : “We are very hopeful that within the coming months a final peace deal will be signed here in Nairobi.”

Representatives of the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, the south’s main rebel group, told AFP on Wednesday they were confident of signing such a deal within days of resuming negotiations on November 26.