OIC offers to help revive Darfur peace talks

RIYADH, March 9 (AFP) — The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said Wednesday it was ready to work to revive stalled negotiations to end the conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said the 57-nation organisation would dispatch a delegation to the African Union, which is sponsoring negotiations between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur, a statement said.

The delegation will also contact the rival parties in a bid to “speed up the political process and remove obstacles that hinder the return to negotiations,” the OIC head told Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustapha Ismael in a telephone conversation, the statement added.

Since an uprising by local rebel groups began in February 2003, Darfur has been a theater of bloody attacks, drought and food shortages that have claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people and displaced some 1.6 million others.

Despite widespread international condemnation of the situation, attacks by rebels, government troops and Khartoum’s proxy militia continue.