Gambari: Canada’s help is critical

UNAMID chief negotiator stresses on the need to persuade hold-out opposition groups to join the peace process

Ibrahim Gambari, the joint special representative of the United Nations African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), said on Friday that Canada’s help in developing a “new road map” for the Darfur peace process might be critical.On a three-day official visit to Ottawa, Gambari met with Margaret Briggs, president of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and other senior officials of the Canadian government.

Canada has been a major backer of peacekeeping efforts in Darfur and in particular of the two-year peace process among the parties to the Darfur conflict in Doha, Qatar. “Canada has played an important and substantial role in the development of comprehensive peace in Darfur,” Gambari told Biggs on Wednesday.

The UNAMID chief has been touring different international capitals in order to involved the international community in the Darfur peacekeeping process. “It would require the support of all international partners engaged in the process, particularly to encourage other hold out movements, such as SLA-Abdul Wahid and SLA-Minni Minawi to engage in negotiations rather than uniting with the SPLM-North for war against the government,” Gambari said in an address on Wednesday.