London, 11 November 2011 - The head of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur, Ibrahim Gambari, has sought British support for the peace process in Darfur which the envoy said was on the cusp of making real progress.

In meetings with senior United Kingdom officials yesterday, Joint Special Representative Gambari outlined the progress on the implementation and dissemination of the Doha Darfur Peace Document (DDPD), the result of two years of negotiations among the parties to the Darfur conflict.

 "The United Kingdom, as an important member of the international community, has a key role in moving forward the peace process in Darfur, especially in building support for the full and timely implementation of the Doha Document, while also persuading the hold out movements to join the peace process, making it both comprehensive and inclusive," he said.
 
JSR Gambari, who is also the interim Joint Chief Mediator for the Darfur peace process, met the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, Stephen O'Brien, and the Director for Africa of the Department for International Development, as well as the UK Special Envoy for Sudan, Michael Ryder and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Director for Africa, Tim Hitchens.

He also stressed to them the importance of early recovery and development activities to a sustainable peace in Darfur:  "There is the need to concretely address the challenges of early recovery and development, with the Government of Sudan and the United Nations Country Team in the lead, so as to bring the dividends of peace to the people of Darfur who have suffered for too long and too deeply,” JSR Gambari said.

The Doha Darfur Peace Document was agreed to by the Government of Sudan and the Liberation and Justice Movement in July, and implementation began shortly thereafter.  JSR Gambari has been actively engaging the non-signatory movements such as the Justice and Equality Movement and the Minni Minawi faction, to get them to commit to the DDPD. He has also been pressing key international partners to lend concrete support to the current peace process as well as lend their weight to convincing the hold-out movements to get on board.

JSR Gambari stopped in London en route to Washington, D.C., where a major conference on the Darfur peace process, sponsored by the US Department of State and the US Institute for Peace, will bring together stakeholders involved in ending the eight-year conflict in the western Sudan region, on 15 and 16 November.

Today he was interviewed by Sir David Frost for an upcoming broadcast of “Frost Over the World,” on Al Jazeera TV.

Communication and Public Information Division Media Contacts
Kemal Saïki, Director; saiki@un.org; tel.: +249 (0) 92 244 3529; mobile: +249 (0) 92 241 0020

Susan Manuel, Deputy director, manuels@un.org, mobile: +249 (0)92 241 0274