Egypt moves to host a five member summit on Darfur

Egypt announced on Sunday evening it is discussing the possibility of convening a five-member summit very soon in Cairo on the question of Darfur to the west of Sudan "with the participation of the Presidents of Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria, Chad and Libya."

The Egyptian official Middle East news Agency MENA said that the summit aims at ensuring elements of the success for the fourth round of negotiations in Abuja in order to avoid the failure of the three former rounds.

Worthy mentioning that the previous summit which was held on Darfur between the same sides in Libya in October 2004 ended without results. The negotiations between the Sudanese government and the two rebel movements in Darfur have been suspended since December 2004.

On the same level, the Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir held a telephone call with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak over the situation in Darfur, in light of the efforts carried out by the African Union and the call to convene a five-member summit in Cairo.

The UN says that the war in Darfur resulted since February 2003 in killing 70,000 persons and the evacuations or displacement of other 1.6 million persons.