The African Union has asked Nato to prolong its mission in Sudan’s violence-wracked Darfur region to help back a peacekeeping operation there, an alliance spokesperson said on Wednesday.
”The AU has asked Nato to extend its current support to the end of September,” said spokesperson James Appathurai, adding that the 26-member military alliance had already given its tacit agreement to the plan in April.
Nato is providing air transport to a 7 000-strong AU contingent in Darfur, where three years of fighting between rebels and Khartoum-backed militias has left up to 300 000 people dead and two million displaced.
It has also been helping with planning and logistics.
The AU also asked Nato to help transport civilian police in and out of the area, Appathurai said.
The Nato mission has involved a small number of personnel, mainly air-traffic controllers on the ground in Darfur and planners based in Addis Ababa.
The mandate of the AU force, which was under-funded and at times overwhelmed, is due to end in September and plans are under way to deploy a UN peacekeeping mission there. — AFP
