AU to Discus Darfur Report in Abuja

(PANA)-- Nigeria will host the meeting of the African Union’s peace and security council on Sudan’s troubled Darfur region here Thursday, erasing fears that the suspected diplomatic spat between the two countries may truncate the meeting.

Earlier this week, a plane taking Nigeria’s senate president David Mark and his entourage to Sudan to visit Nigeria’s peacekeeping troops as part of their oversight functions was prevented from landing ostensibly due to repair work at the airport where the flight was to touch down.

The flight was already in Chad when the entourage was informed that it would not be able to land in Sudan, but Nigerian diplomatic sources said the country’s embassy in Khartoum had obtained advance clearance for the plane to land, and expressed surprise at the turn of events.

But both sides have sought to play down the hitch. Already, the Sudanese delegation, led by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, has arrived in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, for the meeting, which will be held at the level of Heads of State and Government to consider the report of the AU High-Level-Panel on Darfur (AUDP).

The meeting, to be chaired by Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua, will be briefed by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki, who chairs the panel, appointed by the chairperson of the AU Commission to examine the situation in Darfur in-depth and submit recommendations on how best the issues of accountability and combating impunity, as well as peace, healing and reconciliation could be effectively and comprehensively addressed.

The panel completed its work and formally handed over its report to the chairperson of the Commission, Jean Ping, on 8 October 2009.

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