The African Union on Friday urged all Sudanese parties involved in the Darfur conflict to take part in peace talks due to kick off in the Libyan city of Sirte.
In a statement issued by the pan-African body’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, AU Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare appealed to ”all the Sudanese parties to constructively participate in the talks”.
The statement comes on the eve of the peace negotiations, due to begin on Saturday despite a boycott by several key Darfur rebel factions.
The run-up to the talks was also overshadowed by an unprecedented rebel attack against an oilfield in a volatile region neighbouring Darfur, which is disputed by Khartoum and Sudan’s former southern rebels.
The Justice and Equality Movement claimed to have kidnapped two foreign oil workers and gave the Chinese-led consortium running the oilfield a week to pull out of Sudan.
Konare reiterated his ”appeal to all parties concerned to refrain from any act of violence on the ground and from any other act likely to undermine the peace talks”, according to the statement.
The AU has been a key mediator in efforts to end the conflict in Darfur, where the combined effect of war and famine has left at least 200 000 people dead and more than two million displaced since February 2003.
A peace agreement was already signed with Khartoum in Abuja last year but only one of three negotiating rebel movements endorsed it. Darfur now counts at least 25 different factions. — AFP
