South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Sudan next week to evaluate the peace process in the war-ravaged western Darfur region, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.
Mbeki is to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and Vice-President Salva Kirr during the one-day visit on Tuesday.
“It comes in the context of the peace process … as we are the chair of the AU’s [African Union’s] Post-Conflict and Reconstruction Committee and we have 437 troops as part of the AU force in Sudan to implement the comprehensive peace agreement [CPA],” Pahad told a news conference.
“This would be an opportunity for the president … to discuss the progress made in the CPA and identify problems and to see how we can assist,” he said, adding: “We do believe it’s an important stage for the president to go.”
On Tuesday, the heads of a joint delegation from the United Nations and AU travelled to Darfur to push for the deployment of UN peacekeepers.
Sudan has consistently opposed a handover of peacekeeping duties in Darfur, but has shown readiness to discuss the issue since it reached a peace agreement with the main rebel group last month.
Since the war broke out in the vast western region more than three years ago, the combined effect of fighting and a dire humanitarian crisis has left up to 300 000 people dead and more than two million displaced. — AFP