Ban kicks off first visit to Sudan

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sudan yesterday to check on the progress made in Darfur.

“I want to see for myself the plight of those we seek to help, and the conditions under which our peacekeepers in Darfur will operate,” Ban said.

Mr. Ban’s visit comes just weeks after the Security Council authorized a hybrid force, which will have some 26,000 peacekeepers at full deployment, to quell the violence in Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million others forced to flee their homes since 2003 because of fighting between rebel groups, Sudanese Government forces and allied Janjaweed militias.

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