CAIRO/KHARTOUM, 14 August 2007 — A key Darfur rebel faction said yesterday it would only take part in peace talks once UN forces have secured the war-ravaged region of Sudan and insisted on non-African troops in a new hybrid force. “We have to suspend the conflict, which means security on the ground by a UN force. The killing is still going on,” said Yahia Bolad, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army’s leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur.
“As soon as UN troops are on the ground we are ready to negotiate, but that is our red line,” Bolad told AFP in Cairo by telephone from his base in Britain.
The African Union’s top diplomat Alpha Oumar Konare said that African nations have pledged enough troops for Darfur peacekeeping force and non-Africans are not needed. “I can say ... that we have enough pledges from African nations so that we do not need to turn to forces from non-African countries,” Konare said, according to an AU statement yesterday.
