By Jamie Prentis,.
Tunis, 28 April 2017:
UN special envoy Martin Kobler is to make his first visit to Khartoum on Sunday for talks on Libya with Sudanese foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour.
“He will discuss efforts made by Arab League and African Union to solve the Libyan crisis,” a statement by Sudan’s foreign ministry said.
Whilst it is his first visit to Sudan since becoming special envoy, Kobler has previously held talks with Ghandour in Addis Ababa.
Both men will also be present at the next neighbouring countries’ Libya conference on 8 May in Algiers.
Sudan is fully supportive of the UN-backed Presidency Council whose head, Faiez Serraj, was last in Khartoum in March. That visit resulted in a political agreement to form a consultation committee between the two foreign ministries.
Kobler, who has just been reappointed to the post by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres after two other possible replacements were blocked by the Americans and Russians respectively, heads to Khartoum for talks with Ghandour having had similar Libya discussions earlier this week in Algiers with Abdelkader Messahel, Algeria’s minister of Maghreb, African and Arab affairs. He is currently leading his country’s efforts to help solve the Libyan crisis.
