KHARTOUM (AFP) – China's special envoy to Darfur met with Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir and pledged three million dollars in humanitarian aid for the volatile region, Sudanese officials said.

Liu Guijin “greeted the president for the beginning of the talks in Doha between the JEM and the government,” Sudanese Foreign Ministry official Ali Youssif told AFP.
A new round of talks between the government and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the most active rebel group, are being held under Qatari mediation on an exchange of prisoners and eventually a ceasefire.
He said Liu also announced three million dollars in humanitarian aid for Darfur.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died in the western Somali region from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and about 2.7 million fled their homes. Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.
China is seen as a key to ending the six-year war between the Khartoum government and Darfuri rebels because it is an ally of the Khartoum regime, a weapons supplier and importer of Sudanese oil.