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The chairman of the African Union (AU), Ghanaian President John Kufuor, will travel to Kenya next week to mediate between the country's political factions, news from the Ghanaian capital Accra said Saturday.
"The president is going to talk to both factions -- to sit down and ensure that peace is maintained in Kenya," Ghana's Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei Adjei said.
Kufuor had been proposed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Sierra Leone's former president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to mediate between Kenya's newly re-elected President Mwai Kibaki and opposition challenger Raila Odinga, who alleged that the election was rigged.
However, the AU chief's visit appeared to have been abandoned on Friday as Kenyan authorities originally rejected the idea. The trip was approved later after Kenya's deputy foreign minister Moses Wetangula flew to Ghana for talks on Saturday.
More than 350 people have been killed in Kenya and some 250,000 made homeless in violence since the Dec. 27 elections.
UN officials here have warned that a humanitarian crisis was worsening across Kenya, especially in its western part and the Rift Valley area.
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