African leaders on Tuesday named Congo as the chair of the African Union and agreed that Sudan would take over the leadership of the 53-nation body in 2007, according to a text issued at a summit in Khartoum.
Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguessou took over the chair after he was designated on the second day of a meeting, said presidential spokesperson Firmin Ayebba.
”Sudan shall assume the presidency of the African Union for the year 2007,” said the text adopted by leaders and drafted by a five-nation committee tasked with resolving the dispute.
Sudan on Monday offered to withdraw its bid to head the AU to avoid a split among leaders of the 53-nation body gathered in Khartoum.
The bid from President Omar el-Beshir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, had caused unease as the AU is mediating talks to end the bloodshed in Darfur, where 300 000 people have died in three years.
”We don’t want to make any cracks in the union. We don’t want to make any divisions,” presidential adviser Mustapha Osman Ismail told reporters. ”If that means Sudan should withdraw, we will withdraw.”
The only official candidate for the AU chair, Sudan had won support from Egypt and Libya for its bid but West and Southern African governments were reluctant to give Khartoum the high-profile position.
Human rights groups had also warned that giving Sudan the AU chair would be tantamount to rewarding a regime accused by the United States of genocide in Darfur and would damage the credibility of the AU, set up four years ago with a new commitment to peace.
Sudan’s offer to step down as a candidate paved the way for a resolution to a row over the AU chairmanship that had overshadowed the summit called to discuss the continent’s problems of war, poverty and disease.
Darfur rebels taking part in AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja had warned they would pull out of the negotiations if Sudan was given the presidency of the AU.
About 300 000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced since 2003 in fighting between Darfur rebels and government forces backed by militias, triggering one of the continent’s worst humanitarian crises.
The AU deployed a 7 000-strong peacekeeping force to the zone in 2004, but it has been unable to put a stop to the bloodshed. — Sapa-AFP