EU’s new development aid chief heads to Sudan on first trip to Africa
BRUSSELS, Nov 25, 2004 (AP) — The European Union’s new commissioner for development aid, Louis Michel, said Wednesday he would deliver a “blunt” message to warring Sudanese government and rebel forces to abide by agreements to stop the fighting in Darfur.
Michel said the aim of his first visit to Africa later this week was to put pressure on Sudan and rebels to live up to cease-fire agreements and allow access for humanitarian aid workers in the Darfur region, which is still beset by conflict.
“There has been an upsurge in violence in Darfur,” Michel said in a statement.
“I have chosen to visit Sudan … because I think it is vital to see the problem with my own eyes and to speak to some of the people affected,” he added.
“I will deliver some blunt message to the warring parties, reminding them that no one is exempt form the provision so international humanitarian law.”
Michel will travel to Africa this Friday for a four-day visit including stops in Sudan and Kenya to meet humanitarian aid partners in the field as well as hold talks with government officials.
The former Belgian foreign minister will meet Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir on Sunday in Khartoum and will meet Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi on Monday.
Washington accused Sudanese rebels Wednesday of sparking the latest upsurge in violence in Darfur, while the United Nations said the rebel capture of a town violated a cease-fire deal and jeopardized the lives of tens of thousands of people who wouldn’t receive aid because of the fighting.
Darfur’s conflict, which the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, began in February 2003 when the rebel Sudan Liberation Army and allied Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudan’s African tribal population.
The government responded with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the Janjaweed, an Arab militia, has committed widescale abuses against the African population. More than 1.8 million people are estimated to have been driven from their homes.
International agencies estimate that since March, disease, malnutrition and clashes among the displaced have killed more than 70,000 people. Many more have been killed in the fighting, but no firm estimate exists.
The EU has so far given A?184 million (US$241.9 million) in humanitarian aid to help the victims of fighting in Darfur.