ETHIOPIA: African Union summit opens with addresses on subject of deployemnt of African troops in Somalia and crisis in Darfur

At an African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia AU top diplomat urges African troops to be deployed rapidly in Somalia; U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Darfur crisis has to be addressed. The African Union (AU) met in Ethiopia on Monday (January 29) with AU commission head Alpha Oumar Konare saying that Ethiopian troops are leaving Somalia after helping the government there oust Somali Islamists in late 2006. Konare stressed the importance of making sure that African Union troops were put in place in Somalia to avoid an aggravation of the unstable situation there. It has been decided that Ghana will lead the organisation for the next year after widespread opposition to Sudan emerged because of the Darfur crisis, the AU's top diplomat said. The chairmanship was promised to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir a year ago but he was passed over for the post because of the violence in Darfur, which experts estimate has killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes. Critics, including rights groups and Western governments, said there had been no improvement since then and Sudan must again be barred from leading the organisation whose peacekeepers are trying to stem the violence in its vast western region. Konare criticised Sudan in his opening speech at the two-day summit, accusing Khartoum of attacking civilians in Darfur, where the United States says genocide has occurred. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon also addressed the issue of the crisis in Darfur. "The participation between the African Union and the United Nations is of central importance to how we fare on this the largest humanitarian crisis in the world," Ban Ki-Moon told delegates.

ITN Source | January 29, 2007

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