US "sinks" 500 million dollars into Darfur: official

The United States has committed 500 million dollars toward resolving the 24-month-old crisis ravaging the Darfur region in western Sudan, a senior US official said Saturday in Darfur.

"The US has done a lot to end the war and bring succor to Darfur. We have supported the African Union's (AU) peace initiative with 100 million dollars and this is besides 400 million dollars sunk into humanitarian assistance," said Michael Ranneberger, deputy assistance secretary for Africa affairs.

Ranneberger, who is in Nigerian capital Abuja for a two-day AU summit starting Sunday, expressed America's readiness to support ongoing effort toward a peaceful resolution of the trouble in Darfur.

The US official also said that the January 9 peace accord, signed between the Sudanese government and southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Kenya, represented a bold step toward ending the war in Sudan.

The US government, he added, shared Africa's core values of checking conflicts and terrorism, food security and promoting development goals via the New Partnership for Africa's Development, a comprehensive and sustainable blueprint on development on the world's poorest continent.

Darfur has been embroiled in fighting since February 2003 when the rebel groups took up arms against Khartoum, accusing the authorities of not protecting them from the attacks of the Janjaweed militia and demanding autonomy.

The conflict has so far caused thousands of deaths and sent one million others fleeing to neighboring Chad or internally displaced.