By: CHRIS GRAEME
THE EUROPEAN UNION has not dismissed the idea of sanctions against the Sudanese if they fail to end the conflict in Darfur by the end of the year.
The conflict, EU relations with Somalia, Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa topped the agenda on Thursday, July 12, in Lisbon at a Ministerial Troika between the EU and Intergovernmental Authority on Development. (IGAD).
Good faith
The meeting, at the Portuguese Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Palacio das Necesidades) was co-chaired by João Cravinho Portuguese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and H.E Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
João Cravinho said that the European Union “for the moment still wanted to believe in the good faith of the Sudanese government in Khartoum.
On the situation in Somalia the ambassador said, “The National Reconciliation Congress in Mogadishu on Sunday offers us a ray of hope for the various sides in the conflict to resolve their issues,” said Joao Cravinho.
Ambassador Cravinho added that discussions had been held in an “open and constructive atmosphere”, addressing a “wide variety of issues of mutual concern.”
It was the second EU-IGAD meeting – the first being held in October 2003 in Kampala. This second meeting reaffirmed the strategic importance the EU attaches to the Horn of Africa and the promotion of cooperation on peace, security and development in that region.
The Khartoum government, led by Omar al-Bachir, accepted the deployment in Darfur in June of a United Nations multinational ‘hybrid’ peacekeeping task force which includes troops from the African Union.
Conflict
Since 2003 the whole region has been a powder keg of conflict between black African rebels and Arab militia which is allegedly being armed and financed by the Sudanese government.
The conflict has caused 200,000 deaths and an estimated two million displaced peoples.
The Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Seyoum Mesfim said, “There are many African countries willing to make up the AU-UN hybrid force which should be mainly made up of African troops 19,000 of which would be on the ground by the end of the year.”
Somalia, like the Sudan, is in a state of ethnic and religious civil war between the Islamic Unionists and militias supporting the exiled secular government which is in Kenya.
“Somalia is a country in chaos” which has not had an effective government since 1991 when the Siad Barre government fell,” explained Seyoum Mesfim.
Apart from the two crises, which also threaten Ethiopian stability, the Troika discussed regional strategies for peace, security and development and EU-African strategic relations.
“The main priorities are security and infrastructure and the European Union should be prepared to invest in the region in a win-win logic beneficial to both sides,” added the Ethiopian Foreign Minister.
IGAD is made up of Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Djibouti and Sudan – five of the poorest countries in Africa.
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