KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- African Union and U.N. envoys say after talks in Sudan's western Darfur region there is general agreement violence will never resolve the conflict.
"There is an acknowledgment that there is simply no military solution to the Darfur crisis," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy Jan Eliasson said Thursday in Khartoum, Sudan's capital. "That's a starting point for the way forward and that is the political road."
Eliasson and AU special envoy for Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim, have held meetings in Darfur in recent days, including with field commanders of non-signatories to last year's Darfur peace agreement, internally displaced persons, and representatives of the Justice and Equality Movement as well as a number of tribal chiefs.
Eliasson, a former Swedish foreign minister and former president of the U.N. General Assembly, voiced hope talks could soon help reduce the bloodshed in Darfur.
"We have expectations that once this political process starts -- and it starts, I hope, now -- there should and could be visible signs of a reduction in violence and improvement of the situation on the ground," he said.
The diplomatic push must be reflected in the lives of Darfur's people, he said. "We want to connect the political talks we are embarking on with real progress on the ground," the envoy stressed.
Describing the conditions, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million others displaced from their homes, Eliasson said relief personnel were stretched beyond the limit.
"The humanitarian workers are exhausted," he said. "We heard from them clear expressions of fatigue, of frustration at the situation."
