Chirac urges Sudan to accept Darfur peacekeepers

The crisis in Darfur is a “humanitarian disaster that threatens the entire region,” French president Jacques Chirac said today. He urged Sudan to accept peacekeepers.

“A policy based on the worst possible line of action can lead nowhere but to horror,” said Chirac, opening a summit in Cannes of African heads of state and government, including Sudan’s president.

Chirac was hoping to bring Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir together with leaders from neighbouring Chad and Central African Republic for talks later today on Darfur, which is in western Sudan.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million people have fled their homes since violence broke out in the region between government-backed janjaweed militia and ethnic African groups in 2003. The US government has described the violence as genocide.

A 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force has been trying to quell the ongoing violence, but the force is underfunded and ill-equipped.

Al-Bashir rejected a UN Security Council resolution calling for 22,000 UN peacekeepers to replace the AU force in Darfur. But he also has sent mixed signals about a joint UN-AU force.