Government slams senior UN official

The Sudan government has criticised Sir Kieran Prendergast, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, for meeting “secretly” with the opposition, AFP cited local press reports as saying today. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Prendergast held an unscheduled meeting last month with the opposition “without permission or knowledge of the government.” Prendergast briefed the UN Security Council on Monday on his recent tour of the Horn of Africa aimed at determining whether the United Nations could play a constructive peace role in the region. The Council called on Khartoum to continue to participate in the IGAD peace process. Meanwhile, the ripples of the Ethiopia/Eritrea conflict have been felt within IGAD. The organisation’s Eritrean executive secretary, Tekeste Ghebray, was denied entry to Ethiopia last week and Djibouti, the IGAD headquarters, the Eritrean news agency Erina reported.