Standing by Sudan

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President Hosni Mubarak flew to the Libyan capital Tripoli earlier this week to attend the African summit convened in response to the two-year conflict in the Sudanese province of Darfur. The conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 150,000 people and left 2.5 million people homeless.

Egypt has offered to send peace-keeping troops to Darfur as part of the 3,000 strong monitoring force dispatched to the troubled province by the African Union. Like other AU member states Egypt insists that the Darfur crisis is an African problem that requires an African solution.

Non-African nations are welcome to provide financial and logistical support. It is important, however, that peace-keeping troops hail from African countries.

The most significant of the resolutions adopted at the Tripoli summit concerns the resumption -- by the end of May -- of Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The main armed opposition groups in Darfur -- the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- have agreed to the resumption of talks with the Sudanese government and have accepted the principle that only Africans can resolve the Darfur crisis.

The SLA and JEM have been emboldened by the relative success of the southern Sudanese peace process. They recognise that the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), having signed a comprehensive peace deal with Khartoum, will soon be part of a coalition government of national unity.

The Darfur factions would be well-advised to follow the SPLA's path to power-sharing.

The willingness of the SLA and JEM, both of which acknowledge principles of Sudanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, to embark on serious negotiations in Abuja under the auspices of the AU is of vital importance. And Sudan's African neighbours, Egypt included, have pledged to stand by the Sudanese people until peace can be brought to the troubled state.