Five African nations pledged on Thursday to send peacekeepers to a mission in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region that was approved this week by the United Nations Security Council, a top African Union official said.
Said Djinnit, the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, said member states had responded positively during talks on the deployment of up to 26 000 UN and AU troops, who will absorb a smaller AU force that has failed to quell the violence.
”Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon and Ethiopia have pledged to provide troops for the Darfur operation,” Djinnit told reporters at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
Nigeria already has troops in Darfur. Djinnit did not say how many soldiers overall had now been pledged.
Expected to cost more than $2-billion in the first year, the so-called ”hybrid” force will assume authority over 7 000 AU soldiers already in Darfur by December 31, but the daunting task of finding enough personnel is expected to take many more months.
Sudan has promised to cooperate with the new mission, which was authorised by the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Mutref Sediq, Sudan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said the resolution did not meet all Khartoum’s demands.
”But it is reasonable and constitutes a good base for cooperation between the African Union, United Nations and the Sudan government,” he told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
The peacekeepers will be able to use force to protect civilians and the world’s biggest aid operation, but the resolution was watered down and no longer allows troops to seize illegal arms. There was also no threat of sanctions if Sudan fails to cooperate.
Rape, looting, murder and government bombardment have driven millions from their homes in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their desert region. International experts say about 200 000 people have been killed.
Sudan puts the death toll at 9 000 and accuses Western media of exaggerating the conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms complaining of neglect by Khartoum. — Reuters