African Union forces need increased United Nations logistical assistance and more sophisticated defensive weapons to cope with the dangers in Darfur, a top African Union official in Sudan said on Wednesday.
Sam Ibok, head of the AU team charged with implementing a peace agreement in western Sudan, said the support should include planes.
”We need more defensive weapons. AK-47s and the other weapons we have are not enough,” he told Reuters.
Ibok said he was not calling for the immediate deployment of UN troops to help the AU, a move he said would require the consent of the Khartoum government.
But he said the recent attack on AU forces in Darfur demonstrated their vulnerability.
Gunmen attacked five AU troops on Sunday in the deadliest single attack against the African force since it was deployed in 2004.
The five Senegalese soldiers were guarding a water point near the Sudanese border with Chad when they came under fire on Sunday. Four soldiers were killed in the shooting and the fifth died of his wounds on Monday morning.
The AU operates an overstretched 7 000-strong force in Darfur. Sudan has rejected the deployment of a larger UN force in the region, where violence has persisted despite a 2006 peace agreement between the government and one rebel faction.
The latest deaths brought to 15 the number of AU personnel killed in Darfur. A senior Nigerian officer working with the mission has been missing since he was kidnapped in December.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir reiterated on Monday his position that the AU had the main security responsibility for Darfur but said a ”dialogue” was under way on other issues.
Sudanese officials recently said they were willing to review UN proposals for easing the violence in Darfur but Khartoum has not budged on the main plan to send in 22 500 UN soldiers.
Experts estimate that around 200 000 people have been killed and 2,5-million have fled their homes since the conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against Khartoum, charging it with neglect. The government says only 9 000 people have died.
Last month the new UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said on a visit to the region that aid efforts in Darfur — the world’s largest — could collapse if the situation worsened. – Reuters