Secretary-General Kofi Annan is dispatching a senior envoy to Khartoum for talks with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir about the details of recent agreements on ending the widespread killing and displacement in the war-torn Darfur region, writes UN News, Monday.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, currently the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, will start his diplomatic mission in the Sudanese capital on Wednesday.
The decision to send a UN envoy to deliver a message to Mr. el-Bashir followed a weekend telephone conversation between the Secretary-General and the Sudanese leader.
The two men will clarify details of the deal reached in november where the UN, the AU and Sudan agreed that the UN would provide extra support to the current AU peacekeeping mission – known as AMIS – as part of a three-phase process culminating in AMIS becoming a hybrid UN-AU mission.
The hybrid force is expected to have about 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers, compared to the current AMIS strength of around 7,000.
More than 200,000 people have been killed across Darfur since 2003 and at least 2 million others displaced from their homes because of fighting between Government forces, allied militias and rebel groups seeking greater autonomy.
Some 4 million people now depend on the UN or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for humanitarian aid.
