AU mission 'broke in 4 months'

2005-12-16 13:45

Addis Ababa - The African Union will run out of money for its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur within four months unless it finds more funding, a senior AU official said on Friday.

The European Union's injection of €70m on Friday into the mission's operations helps bridge its shortfall of $135m, but the African Union continues to struggle to run its peacekeeping operation in Sudan despite pledges made in May to give the mission an additional $200m, said Said Djinnit, the AU Peace and Security Commissioner.

"As of today we have only resources in cash to maintain the mission to the end of March, very early April," Djinnit told journalists.

"We are concerned about this because we have to maintain the mission and you have to have resources if you want to maintain the mission."

The 7 000-strong force needs $465m a year to operate, but so far they only received $330m Djinnit said.

"In January important decisions should be taken in terms of providing resources to enable the mission to be maintained for the agreed timeframe or in terms of discussing other options," he said.

On Thursday, an AU assessment mission, headed by Baba Gana Kingibe, the organisation's special envoy to Sudan, said that the presence of African Union troops in Darfur had helped reduce violations of a fragile ceasefire between the Sudanese government and rebels.

The group, however, qualified that, saying the security situation did not allow for those made homeless or refugees by the more than two year-old conflict to return to their homes.

The UN estimates that 180 000 people have died, mainly through famine and disease, and several million more have either fled into neighbouring Chad or been displaced inside Sudan since the conflict began in February 2003.

- AP