Major General (Ret) Scott Gration departs this evening on his 25th trip as U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan. The Special Envoy will participate in the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, prior to accompanying Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg on his trip to Khartoum and Juba.

During his trip, Special Envoy Gration will also visit Port Sudan to assess the status of implementation of the Eastern Sudan peace agreement, and will make his third visit to Darfur in the past two months to discuss the potential initiation of a consultative peace process based in Darfur.