KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The president of Sudan has agreed to a 60-day cease-fire in the country's war-torn Darfur region but continues to oppose a U.N. presence in the African country.
Omar Hassan al-Bashir and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., issued a joint statement saying the president and the leaders of several rebel groups have agreed to temporarily halt violence in Darfur, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The joint statement said Bashir would work to expand access to the region for journalists and aid workers.
Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations who traveled to Sudan on behalf of the Save Darfur Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the Sudanese president appears to genuinely want a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
"He realizes he's isolated and has got to change," Richardson in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. "He's boxed in."
"What is lacking is a political process that leads to a U.N. force," Richardson told The New York Times. "I think this 60-day cease-fire is at least a step."
