Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Darfur Peace Process Has Reached ‘Critical’ Juncture, Ban Says -CREDIT AllAfrica
The peace process in the war-wracked Darfur region of Sudan has reached a "critical point," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling on both the Government and rebel groups to accelerate efforts to reach a compromise.
The Joint African Union-United Nations Mediator Djibril Bassolé has been working with Qatar to drum up momentum by giving civil society a voice at the peace talks, Mr. Ban told the Security Council.
The efforts by the UN and AU – which together manage UNAMID, the peacekeeping force in Darfur – to resolve the long-running conflict in the region between the Sudanese Government and the region’s armed movements have been led by Mr. Bassolé and his team and sponsored by the Government of Qatar.
Fighting has raged across the western Sudanese region since 2003, pitting the rebel movements against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen. All sides stand accused of human rights abuses and an estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur over the past six years and another 2.7 million people forced to leave their homes.