African Union presses to revive Darfur peace talks

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Mar 15, 2005 (PANA) — A special envoy of current African Union (AU) chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is expected in Khartoum Thursday to meet Sudan government officials on how to revive peace talks on the conflict in western Darfur.

A girl rests against a flimsy shack at Abushouk camp near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, October 31, 2004.Reuters .

The envoy will deliver a message from Obasanjo to Sudanese
President Omar Hassan el-Bashir, and later discuss with senior government officials and other stakeholders “the plans, ideas, views as well as proposals by the AU on how to revive the stalled Darfur peace negotiations in Abuja,” an official source said
here Tuesday.

In a press relase issued here, Foreign Minister Najeeb Al-Khair Abdul-Wahab said the message could contain a proposed agenda and date for the next round of talks since the visit comes in the
wake of enhancing the AU’s role to find a fair and quick solution
to the conflict in Darfur.

There have been a series of contacts in the past few weeks by the
AU with Sudan government officials and the rebel Sudan Liberation
Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to
revive the stalled peace talks.

Both ethnic rebel groups in western Darfur are revolting against
what they termed as marginalisation and neglect for the
population of the remote region, by the government in Khartoum.

UN and humanitarian relief agencies estimate that at least 70,000
people have died and more than a million others pushed away as
internally displaced persons and refugees in neighbour Chad
since fighting started in Darfur in February 2003.