Joint UN-Sudan panel to meet on worsening security in Darfur

Deteriorating security in Sudan's Darfur region and its impact on humanitarian operations and the safety of aid workers will be discussed tomorrow at a meeting bringing together United Nations and Sudanese Government officials.

The session of the Joint Implementation Mechanism (JIM) in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, will be the seventh since it was set up after the UN and Sudan signed a joint communiqué in July on addressing the conflict in Darfur.

Participants are also slated to discuss the upcoming peace talks on Darfur in Abuja, Nigeria, according to the UN Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS).

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, is scheduled to attend the negotiations in Abuja between the Government and Darfur's two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). In meetings with the delegations he is expected to discuss the UN's role in Darfur.

In a related development, the African Union's Peace and Security Council will meet tomorrow in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to consider and decide on the size and mandate of the proposed expanded AU Mission to Darfur. The Council will consider recommendations presented to it by the Union's Military Commission.

The AU currently has some 350 monitors in the vast region, and Mr. Annan has recommended that the expanded AU force be given the power to protect internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, including those living in makeshift camps, monitor the activities of the local police, and disarm fighters, including the Janjaweed militias accused of committing most of the attacks against civilians.