Ahern to visit Darfur on week-long trip to Africa

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is visiting the war-torn Darfur region in western Sudan today as part of a week-long trip to Africa.

An estimated 200,000 people have been killed in the area during three years of conflict between local rebels, government forces and pro-government militias known as the Janjiweed.

Some 2.5 million people have also been displaced from their homes, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

The main rebel movement signed a peace deal with the Government earlier this year, but the other rebel factions refused to sign and aid agencies in Darfur say the situation has deteriorated since then.

The United Nations has been urging the Sudanese Government to allow a large deployment of UN peacekeepers into the area to replace a small contingent of African Union troops who have failed to bring peace and stability.

Yesterday, Mr Ahern held talks with his Sudanese counterpart in Kartoum and said afterwards that he believed the authorities were open to the idea of a UN deployment.

He is due to visit one of the main refugee camps in the area today to view the situation for himself.