The United Nations is sending Lakhdar Brahimi and Hedi Anabi to Khartoum next Wednesday to discuss implementation of the Abuja peace agreement for Sudan's troubled region of Darfur, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday. “His experience in Africa and the Arab world speaks for itself,” Dujarric said of Brahimi, a retired Algerian diplomat known for his work at the United Nations on Sudan and Afghanistan. Anabi is the second-ranking U.N. peacekeeping official. Dujarric told reporters that the United Nations has been in contact with the Sudanese government, including Sudanese second Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, and “we are trying to moving our planning process as quickly as possible.” On Tuesday, the Security Council passed a resolution giving the Sudanese government one week to allow U.N. advisers into Darfur for an assessment mission. The council agreed in principle to bring U.N. peacekeepers to the Darfur region to replace the small African Union contingent currently in place. The U.N. advisers previously had been denied visas.
