ADDIS ABABA, 17 July 2004 — African Union mediators were yesterday trying to bring the Sudanese government and rebel officials to the table to end a conflict in the western region of Darfur that has caused what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.
An initial meeting between Khartoum and the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement Army adjourned Thursday with the rebels demanding Khartoum’s withdrawal from Darfur as one of several preconditions for discussions.
Government spokesman Ibrahim Muhammad told AFP yesterday that in closed-door talks with mediators at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Khartoum expressed hope that such direct talks might open later that evening. “We are here with an open mind, with the help of the African Union and the international community, to hammer out a peaceful resolution to the crisis,” he added.
He also dismissed the rebels’ demand that pro-Khartoum Janjawid militias accused of numerous atrocities in Darfur be pulled out of the region. “It is completely unacceptable and unrealistic as the militias are not under the control of the government. The government cannot enter into such commitment,” Muhammad explained.
The rebels also insisted that Khartoum step up efforts to counter Darfur’s humanitarian crisis, where a major famine is looming, and recommit itself to an April 8 cease-fire — which both sides are accused of violating. They additionally called for an investigation into war crimes such as “ethnic cleansing” and prosecution of all perpetrators. The African Union itself made a similar demand at a summit last week.
More than one in three Sudanese children who have fled Darfur for Chad are suffering from acute malnutrition, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday. A nutrition survey, carried out among some 1,000 children in three camps in northeastern Chad, underscored the need for more feeding programs for children under age five and pregnant and nursing women, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
“The survey found global acute malnutrition levels indicating a serious crisis with 36 to 39 percent of refugee children under age five malnourished,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva. “High levels, some 35 percent, of malnutrition were also found among the local Chadian population, many of whom are sharing their meager supplies with the refugees,” he added.
An estimated 200,000 Sudanese from the troubled western region of Darfur have fled to Chad, including 130,000 staying in nine refugee camps. Senior officials from the UNHCR and World Food Program are to meet in Rome next Wednesday to discuss the situation in Chad, according to Redmond. The WFP plans next week to make its first air drop of 1,400 tons of food supplies into areas of Darfur already cut off by heavy seasonal rains which have flooded roads, spokesman Simon Pluess told a briefing in Geneva.
