From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Aug 12 2008 - 21:04:09 EDT
Sudan, Kenya FMs to discuss Eritrea return to Igad with Afewerki
Wednesday 13 August 2008 02:30.
August 12, 2008 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese and Kenyan foreign ministers are
expected in Asmara within two days for talks with the Eritrean president
in abide to convince him to return to the Inter-Governmental Authority
on Development (IGAD).
Increasingly disillusioned with the eastern African organisation,
Eritrea suspended its IGAD membership in April 2007 in protest to member
states refusal to condemn and take actions against Ethiopia for sending
troops to Somalia.
Asmara also was opposed to IGAD endorsement of a plan to allow foreign
peacekeepers into war-torn Somalia to bring stability there.
Deng Alor and his Kenyan counterpart Moses Wetang'ula will fly on
Thursday to discuss with President Isaias Afewerki ways to rejoin the
regional body as it was decided in a summit of the IGAD head of states
last June in Addis Ababa.
The Eritrean president had accepted to discuss the issue with the
delegation, Khartoum announced today. The Sudanese ambassador in Asmara,
Salah Mohamed el-Hassan today said this move is aimed to convince
Eritrea to lift the suspension of its membership and participate in the
next IGAD summit n in Sudan.
Eritrea was one of seven member countries of IGAD, a group created in
1996 from an earlier organization that focused on drought and
development. The Member countries of the Djibouti-based organisation
include: Kenya; Ethiopia; Djibouti; Uganda; Sudan; and Somalia.
Eritrea also disappointed by a plan adopted by the organisation to
mediate a border dispute with its archenemy Ethiopia. Asmara considers
that boundary commission had already demarcated the border and its
decision is binding to Addis Ababa whereas Ethiopia says there should be
more discussion on the issue.
Among IGAD's most high-profile accomplishments is the holding of
Naivasha peace talks in Kenya between northern and southern Sudan that
ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord, ending more
than two decades of civil war in Sudan.
IGAD also facilitated the Somali peace talks in Kenya that resulted in
the formation of Somalia's current transitional federal government, and
is endorsing an African-Union peacekeeping operation in Somalia.
(ST)
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