Annan dispatches Brahimi and Annabi to Khartoum

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to dispatch Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister who stepped down from active UN service last December, to Khartoum next week to press Sudan's government to allow UN military planners into Darfur, UN officials said on Friday.

Mr Brahimi is to be accompanied on the trip by senior UN peacekeeping official Hedi Annabi, UN chief spokesman Stephanie Dujarric told Reuters today.



Photo: Lakhdar Brahimi (AFP/Prakash Singh)

May 19 2006 UN News Centre: UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has said that once host country approval is given, it would take up to six months or more to get a more numerous UN force fully operational. Meanwhile, it was vital that the AU force receive a more robust mandate to protect the civilian population and that its number at least double, he added.