UNION AFRICAINE


UNIأO AFRICANA
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA P.O. Box: 3243 Tel: (251-11) 551 38 22 Fax: (251-11) 551 93 21
Email: [email protected] [email protected] Website: africa-union.org

7TH ROUND OF THE INTER-SUDANESE PEACE TALKS ON THE
CONFLICT IN DARFUR

AU MEDIATION CONDEMNS ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN DARFUR

The African Union Special Envoy for Darfur and Chief Mediator, together with the entire AU Mediation Team, remain deeply concerned over the recent escalation of violence in the Jebel Marra area, particularly in the Golo and Shearia localities of Darfur as well as in the Arminkol area in the Kulbus locality of Western Darfur.

The AU Mediation is utterly outraged by these violations of the ceasefire, the worst this year, especially as they have occurred at a critical juncture in the Abuja Peace Process when the Sudanese Parties and all concerned stakeholders are striving so hard, during this vital definitive phase of the Talks, to ensure that a Peace Agreement is concluded to end the conflict in Darfur in the coming weeks.

The present dangerous turn of events can only overshadow the conducive atmosphere being painstakingly nurtured at the Talks, undermine the emerging consensus being worked out and, worse still, jeopardize the entire Peace Process.

While unequivocally condemning the renewed fighting in parts of Darfur, the AU Special Envoy emphasizes that there is no viable military solution to the Darfur conflict and that a political solution must be found around the negotiating Table. He warns that those involved in the recent ceasefire violations must be made to realize that it is unacceptable to talk and fight at the same time, and calls upon the AU Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council to consider all appropriate measures to get the Parties to comply with the commitments they had entered into previously, including scrupulous respect for the letter and spirit of the Humanitarian
Ceasefire Agreement.

In the meantime, the Special Envoy and the AU Mediation call upon all the Sudanese Parties to refrain from all hostile and offensive actions and rather take full advantage of the ongoing Peace Process in Abuja to bring to an end the conflict in Darfur..

Abuja, 29 January 2006