Top UN peacekeeping official to visit Sudan for talks on Darfur force

The top United Nations peacekeeping official will lead the world body’s team on a joint mission with the African Union (AU) to Sudan this week to hold wide-ranging discussions with Sudanese leaders aimed at strengthening the AU monitoring force in the country’s strife-torn Darfur region and preparing for its possible transition to a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno will lead the UN-AU team set to hold consultations in Khartoum and then visit Darfur itself to assess the immediate needs of strengthening the current 7,000-strong AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which initially will be responsible for helping to implement a peace accord there, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York today.

“The mission will also undertake an assessment of all the requirements for a possible transition” from AMIS to a UN force in Darfur, he added.

The accelerated pace of consultations follows the signing a month ago of a peace agreement between the Government and the largest rebel faction in Darfur, where three years of fighting between the Government, pro-Government militias and rebels have killed scores of thousands of people and displaced some 2 million others amid charges of the massacre of civilians, rape and other atrocities.

On 16 May, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution May under Chapter VII of the Charter, which allows for enforcement measures, calling for an assessment team to be deployed within a week.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has warned that it is vital that AMIS receive a more robust mandate to protect the civilian population and humanitarian workers, and that its force be at least double its current 7,000-member strength.

Two smaller rebel groups have so far refused to sign the accord, and the Government has not yet agreed to a UN peacekeeping operation for Darfur.

After its on-site assessment the UN-AU team will return to Khartoum for one more round of consultations with the authorities, before leaving to report to the Mr. Annan and the Chairman of the AU Commission.

The visit “will be an important step in the ongoing cooperation between the Government of Sudan and the international community, and in their collective efforts to bring peace, stability and prosperity to Sudan,” Mr. Dujarric said.

In another development, a mission from the Security Council was due today in Khartoum, the capital, where it is set to meet with the Sudanese leadership including President Omar al-Bashir tomorrow.