KAMPALA: Possible charges against Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir should be delayed and he should be given time to improve the security situation in Darfur, the presidents of Egypt and Uganda said on Wednesday.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said they agreed with the African Union s position that Beshir be given time to implement a ceasefire in the southern Sudan region of Darfur, Ugandan Minister Omara Atubo said after a meeting between the heads of state.
Mubarak arrived Wednesday morning in Kampala on a one-day official visit aimed at strengthening relations between Egypt and Uganda.
Both the African Union and the Arab League have asked the UN Security Council to delay a decision by the International Criminal Court on whether to arrest Beshir.
The Sudanese leader was accused earlier this month by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of personally instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, where a civil war has been raging since 2003.
Also on the agenda in Kampala was the impact of climate change on the Nile River.
Ninety-five percent of water consumption in Egypt, which gets very little rain, comes from the Nile and Uganda is dependent on one of its tributaries, the White Nile.
All are sourced out of the Great Lakes in eastern Africa.
The Egyptian president offered a donation of $18 million (?11.5 million) to the Ugandan government to combat the growth of water hyacinths in the Nile and Lake Victoria. -AFP
