Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole has been appointed the joint African Union (AU)-UN special envoy for Sudan, tasked with overseeing the search for military and political solutions to the crisis in Darfur. The Burkinabe politician replaces AU Special Envoy Salim Ahmed Salim and the UN Special Envoy Jan Eliasson, who have been overseeing the search for both political and military solutions in the battle-scarred region of western Sudan. Speaking hours before the African Union (AU) Executive Council, bringing together foreign ministers from the 53 African states, AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping said Bassole would work on a full time basis to resolve the crisis. “We are pursuing political and military objectives. We hope the political aspects would move,” Ping told a news conference Friday. Bassole had a long career as a senior military officer in Burkina Faso before joining the government in 1999 as deputy minister in charge of security. He was appointed the Security Minister, a position he held for nearly seven years. UN sources say the move to appoint the new mediator to serve on full time basis was motivated by the growing political crisis in Darfur, including the latest attacks on Khartoum in early May. Panapress .
