AFRICAN UNION LIAISON OFFICE IN SUDAN

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

Ambassador Mahmoud Kane addresses host of diplomats and representatives of national and international organisations at Africa Day Reception

 

Khartoum 27 May 2008 – Speaking at the event to mark Africa Day, organised by the Dean of African Countries and attended by a host of African diplomats and Ambassadors in Khartoum, Ambassador Mahmoud Kane, Head of the African Union’s Liaison Office in the Sudan said last night: “Standing here in 2008, it is extraordinary to remember that our noble story together began in Addis Ababa almost half a century ago – in 1963 – when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was born.”

 

Ambassador Kane added that Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie’s famous words at that event were: may this convention last 1,000 years. “When you think how far we have already travelled on the road to African unity, when you see how far the African Union has come in that time, how strong it is today, I see no reason why the African Union shouldn’t last 1,000 years, perhaps much longer.”

 

The African Union has been in Darfur since 2004, beginning its Mission with just several hundred people, yet today it stands proudly shoulder to shoulder with the UN in Darfur in the form of the joint UNAMID force of 10,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, Amb. Kane added.

 

Ambassador Kane reminded all present that the AU’s story in Sudan doesn’t end nor does it begin in Darfur. Although it doesn’t receive the same sort of coverage Darfur gets, the AU is totally engaged in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between North and South. It has been since 2002 and its commitment to helping the Sudanese parties reach a lasting peace remains unwavering. It is for this reason that the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) authorized the setting up of a Liaison Office in Khartoum with an office in Juba earlier last year. The AU’s commitment is further underscored by the appointment of a Special Envoy for the implementation of the CPA.