The African Union met Thursday to encourage member states to put more troops into the Darfur peacekeeping mission approved by the United Nations Security Council.
Ambassadors to the pan-African body gathered at its Addis Ababa headquarters to discuss the force, which faces the daunting task of stabilising the war-torn western Sudanese region.
The 7 000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur now will be replaced by a so-called ”hybrid” force of AU and UN troops, following the UN Security Council’s unanimous approval of the deployment on Tuesday.
The new force will be the world’s largest peacekeeping operation, with 26 000 troops and police mandated to protect civilians in Darfur and support a moribund peace agreement signed last year.
AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit told Agence France-Presse that the meeting aimed to ”sensitise member states on the need to make contributions to the hybrid operation”.
Resolution 1769 authorising the deployment says the new mission ”should have a predominantly African character and the troops should, as far as possible, be sourced from African countries”.
Yet the first countries to express interest in sending troops were the likes of Sweden, Norway, France and the Netherlands.
The European Union, which has already provided more than $550-million to the AU force, said it would consider a troop contribution.
Rwanda and Nigeria make up the bulk of the current African contingent and both countries vowed several months ago to send more men to the troubled region where more fighting between rival tribes was reported on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Nigeria offered to send a fourth battalion of about 700 men to Darfur.
The under-funded force has struggled to pay soldiers’ salaries and the AU is hoping the UN presence in the new mission will offer attractive guarantees for new contributions.
Malawi, which already has a battalion in the current force, said it would consider sending more.
”We already have troops in Darfur but if we need to send more it would depend on the capacity of the Malawi army,” Paul Chiunguzeni, director of political affairs in the Foreign Ministry, said.
”Malawi has been an advocate of sending troops to Darfur and with the new arrangement it means that everybody has now to send troops to support the initiative,” he added.
While making no direct pledge to Darfur, other countries have dispatched soldiers to the African Standby Force, which is expected to eventually number 25 000 troops.
The deployment in Darfur of part of this new force is to be discussed during the Southern African Development Community summit starting in Lusaka on August 16.
At least 200 000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced by the combined effect of war and famine, since Darfur rebels complaining of marginalisation rose up against Khartoum in February 2003.
The African Union sent its first ever peacekeeping mission to a war zone in 2004 but has been unable to curb the violence and secure steady supply lines for the thousands of aid workers delivering relief to the population. — AFP
