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Darfur Conflict Dominates Africa Summit
Sudan's government has been accused of retaliating against civilians as well as supporting paramilitary groups from nomadic Arab tribes blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the conflict. Sudan's government denies the allegations.
The government signed a peace agreement with one Darfur rebel faction last May, but violence has only worsened. Sudan and Chad also have been trading accusations of supporting each others' rebel groups.
  U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is projected onto a screen as he addresses dignitaries, Monday, Jan. 29, 2007 during the opening of the 8th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An African Union summit opened in Ethiopia Monday, with Sudan coming under increasing international pressure to resolve the worsening violence in Darfur.(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) (Karel Prinsloo - AP) PHOTOS |
Al-Bashir has opposed a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace or absorb the weak AU force of 7,000 soldiers now in Darfur.
But late Monday, Sadiq, the Foreign Ministry spokesman in Khartoum, said Sudan's government had agreed to cooperate on forming a "hybrid force" for Darfur that would include U.N. troops.
"What has come to be known as the hybrid force has been agreed on by all parties, including Sudan," Sadiq told The Associated Press.
He said no final agreement on troop numbers had been reached, although AU and U.N. officials say the United Nations could be sending as many as 10,000 to 15,000. Sadiq said U.N. troops could begin deploying in July.
Sudan has reneged on previous agreements to allow the United Nations into Darfur, however, and al-Bashir _ who has the final say on such matters _ was not immediately available for comment.
Ban released a statement Monday saying Sudan's president had agreed to "accelerate" efforts to create such a force.
The summit, which ends Tuesday, is also focusing on assembling an African peacekeeping force for Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since clan warlords toppled a longtime military dictatorship in 1991 and then fell to fighting among themselves.
A U.N.-backed interim administration supported by Ethiopia's military defeated an Islamic militia in the Horn of Africa nation, but Ethiopian troops are pulling out and there are worries that warlords and other armed groups could disrupt efforts to restore stability.
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Associated Press writer Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
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