AU ministers discuss Sudan’s post conflict reconstruction

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Feb 18, 2005 (PANA) — A meeting of the African Union
(AU) foreign ministers committee on Sudan opens in Cape Town Friday
to discuss the country’s post-conflict reconstruction.

Sudanese President Omar El Bashir (R) shakes hands with the leader of SPLM/A John Garang after the signing of accords on two outstanding issues paving the way for the signing of a comprehensive peace deal at the end of 2004. (AFP) .

The committee headed by South Africa’s foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini
Zuma will be attended by her counterparts from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan, as well as Norway.

AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit, the AU Special Envoy
to the Sudan Peace Process, Baba Gana Kingibe and representatives of the
Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) are also attending
the meeting.

Also invited are officials from the African Development Bank, the World
Bank, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF, UN
Liaison Officer for Peacekeeping and the NEPAD secretariat.

According to the South African foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie
Mamoepa, the ministers will focus on the work of the post-conflict
reconstruction committee and the implementation of the comprehensive
peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A in
Nairobi on 9 January 2005.

They will also examine a capacity and institutional building Project for
South Sudan; South-South Peace dialogue and the ongoing conflict in
western Sudan’s Darfur region.

Friday’s meeting is a follow-up to a state visit the South African
President Thabo Mbeki made to Khartoum in January.

South Africa’s deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad’s also visited Kapoeta
County in Southern Sudan, during which he led a delegation of senior
government and academic delegation early this month.

Pahad’s visit was the first phase of the department of Foreign Affairs –
Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement-University of South Africa
(DFA-SPLM-UNISA) Institution and Capacity Building Project from early
February.

Mbeki recently said that, as the convenor of the AU Sudan Post-Conflict
Reconstruction committee, South Africa will focus on ensuring the
successful implementation of the peace settlement signed in Nairobi last
month.