Africa is in a position to provide all 26 000 troops for the United Nations’s peacekeeping operation in Darfur, the head of the African Union (AU) said on Monday.
Forces from countries outside the continent were not needed for the operation, in western Sudan, because African nations had already pledged sufficient numbers, Alpha Oumar Konare, the AU’s leading diplomat, told Reuters.
”I can say … that we have enough pledges from African nations so that we do not need to turn to forces from non-African countries,” he added.
Although the UN authorised the peacekeeping force last month, it has yet to approve funding for the operation.
Last week, UN officials said the joint AU-UN force would be ”predominantly African”, but added that countries including Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh had pledged troops.
The Sudanese government had strongly opposed the involvement of non-African countries in the force.
International experts estimate that around 200 000 people have died and 2,5-million have been driven from their homes during more than four years of fighting in Darfur.
Sudan’s Arab-dominated government and the pro-government Janjaweed militias are accused of war crimes against the region’s black African population, although the UN has stopped short of calling it genocide. – Guardian Unlimited Â