SECRETARY-GENERAL VISITS SUDAN

(27 - 29 May 2005)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, for an official visit. He is scheduled to go to the troubled Darfur region. Mr. Annan's three-day visit will include talks with Sudan's leadership and a visit to the south as well as the western Darfur region. He will get a first-hand impression of the humanitarian situation there, where the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is struggling with dwindling resources and insufficient equipment to neutralize the violence that has killed thousands and forced 2 million people from their homes. In Khartoum, the Secretary-General held an initial meeting with Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail. Speaking to the press afterwards, Mr. Annan said he was encouraged that the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, bringing an end to a two-decade-long civil conflict between the north and south, was moving forward.

(Click on photo image for larger view.)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (centre) arrives in Khartoum, Sudan. (UN Photo #NICA 76721 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (seated, right) briefing correspondents in Khartoum upon his arrival. (UN Photo #NICA 76722 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (left) meets with Mustafa Osman Ismail, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Sudan. (UN Photo #NICA 76723 by Evan Schneider)

In the southern town of Nyala, tens of thousands of people lined both sides of the road leading to the Kalma camp to greet Secretary-General Kofi Annan. (UN Photo #NICA 77085 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (centre) interacts with women of the Kalma Camp, where more than 100,000 internally displaced people are living. (UN Photo #NICA 77091 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (right) walking through one of the burned-out mud huts of the devastated town of Labado. (UN Photo #NICA 77093 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (left) interacts with one of the 30,000 inhabitants who have recently begun to return to the devastated town of Labado under the protection of the African Union, as she talks about the air attack that had forced her family to flee. (UN Photo #NICA 77094 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (left) greets inhabitants of the devastated town of Labado, where roughly 60,000 of the town's inhabitants had fled from violence and attacks last December. (UN Photo #NICA 77095 by Evan Schneider)

John Garang (left), Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), welcoming Secretary-General Kofi Annan upon his arrival in Rumbek, southern Sudan. (UN Photo #NICA 76988 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (right) receives in Rumbek several cattle from John Garang, Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), as a high-honour welcoming gift. In response, the Secretary-General said, "I accept these cattle and would urge your leaders to keep them for me until that proper time when I would ask that they be slaughtered to feed the widows and children who have suffered so much through this conflict". (UN Photo #NICA 76989 by Evan Schneider)

Secretary-General Kofi ANnan (centre) and John Garang (right), Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), walking down the street as the crowd welcomes the Secretary-General to Rumbek, southern Sudan. (UN Photo #NICA 76990 by Evan Schneider)


Back to UN Photos Page
Return to UN Home Page