Annan to attend inauguration of Sudan's new National Unity Government

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the inaugural ceremony of Sudan's Government of National Unity in Khartoum tomorrow, a major milestone in the peace accord ending two decades of civil war in southern Sudan that killed at least 2 million people, uprooted 4 million more and sent 600,000 into exile.

The agreement was signed in Nairobi, Kenya, in January by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Chairman John Garang of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), who will now become vice-president in the new government.

Mr. Annan was travelling to Khartoum from Gleneagles, Scotland, where he participated in the G8 summit meeting on Africa, in which he joined the leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, the African Union (AU), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

On the sidelines of the summit this morning, he met with two of the musicians who had participated in the Live 8 conference focusing on Africa's needs – Bob Geldof and Bono – as well as with film director Richard Curtis, take part in Live 8 and whose recent films include The Girl in The Café, a romantic comedy about a fictitious G8 summit in Iceland where the girlfriend of a British civil servant speaks out to the leaders on behalf of starving children.