Sudan agrees to AU troops

2004-07-07 16:24

Addis Ababa - Sudan has agreed to allow the deployment of 300 African Union troops to its western Darfur region, where thousands have been killed and more than a million black Africans have fled attacks by Arab militiamen, an official said on Wednesday.

The soldiers will protect civilians who have fled to camps to escape the violence, AU spokesperson Desmond Orjiako said.

The AU announced on Monday it planned to send the peacekeepers, who will be deployed as soon as it is "feasible," Orjiako said.

He did not elaborate, but other officials have said the force would include troops from Nigeria and Rwanda and possibly Tanzania and Botswana.

The troops will also safeguard unarmed AU observers who are to monitor an April cease-fire between the government and Darfur rebels, he said. The union has said it will send 150 monitors as part of the cease-fire agreement, though only a small number are already in Darfur.

"The whole objective is to build confidence (between Sudan's government and rebels) and persuade the parties to the conflict to observe a cease-fire agreement," Orjiako said.

Campaign to expel African farmers

The Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, two rebel groups drawn from the region's African tribes, took up arms in February 2003 over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen in Darfur.

A cease-fire was signed April 8, but both sides accuse each other of violations.

UN officials and human rights groups have accused el-Bashir's government of backing the Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, in a campaign to violently expel African farmers from the Iraq-sized region.

UN officials have also called the situation in Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and even UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said it "is bordering on ethnic cleansing."

Sudan denies the allegations, but last week el-Bashir promised Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, both of whom were visiting the country, that his government would disarm the militia.

The United Nations has said that thousands of people have been killed and more than a million others have been forced from their homes, most taking shelter in makeshift camps along the Chad-Sudan border.

- AP