UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy for Darfur made his first visit to Sudan's war-torn western region for talks on ending the bloodshed.
The special envoy, Jan Eliasson, traveled Friday from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. The United Nations has said the Darfur conflict is the world's gravest humanitarian crisis and U.S. President George W. Bush calls it a genocide.
In Khartoum, Eliasson met with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and other senior government figures.
Eliasson said his discussions concerned the deployment of a planned hybrid U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, which could include as many as 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers.
In a statement Thursday, Eliasson called the talks with el-Bashir fruitful and positive.
In Darfur, Eliasson is scheduled to meet signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement, as well as some rebel groups that have not signed. The agreement was made last May, but it has so far done little to bring an end to the fighting.
The conflict has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced at least 2.5 million others since 2003. In addition, about 4 million people now depend on outside aid.
Eliasson, a former U.N. General Assembly president and Swedish foreign minister, was appointed last month to re-energize diplomatic efforts for a non-military solution in the region based on the Darfur Peace Agreement.
