Sudan and Darfur rebels will hold talks on October 27 in Libya to push for peace ahead of the expected deployment of a 26 000-strong peace force in Darfur, a United Nations-Sudanese government statement said on Thursday.
The statement said the UN ”expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully” with UN and African Union (AU) mediators.
The announcement came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came to the end of a three-day tour of Sudan where he held talks with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and leaders of key Darfur rebel factions.
Ban told a news conference the Libya talks would be held under the mediation of UN Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim.
”I urge and expect all parties to respect their commitments to cease all hostilities immediately,” Ban said.
International experts estimate about 200 000 people have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes in Darfur since the conflict broke out in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9 000.
A 2006 peace deal between Khartoum and one rebel faction failed to quell the violence in the western region. In July, the UN Security Council approved a plan for 26 000 UN and AU peacekeepers to take over from a smaller and ineffective AU force currently operating in Darfur.
Ban has said that the UN-AU force cannot be effective unless ”there is a peace to keep”. — Reuters