European Commissioner To Persuade Sudan Over U.N. Mission
Nji Che - All Headline News African Correspondent Brussels, Belgium (AHN) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will travel to Sudan over the weekend on a trip to persuade Khartoum to allow a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur. Barroso, and EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel will meet President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday evening in Khartoum. "We will try to show it is in his interest, as well as that of the international community, to allow a U.N. mission in Darfur," an EU official told Reuters. "They do not want an effective peace-keeping force on the ground, so the branding does not matter that much." Earlier on Friday, a senior U.N. official called on the world body to drop efforts to persuade Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers in the troubled Darfur region. Jan Pronk, a U.N. envoy to Sudan said on Friday that the African Union force in Sudan should rather be strengthened. Pronk said he did not believe Khartoum would accept U.N. peacekeepers any time soon. He told the AP news agency, "The international community should instead push for the African Union's mission to be prolonged and reinforced." There are currently 7,000 African Union troops stationed in Sudan. But the force has not succeeded to quell violence perpetrated by the Janjaweed and other militia groups. The situation has worsened over the last few months. At least 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003 when violence eru |
