UK to send troops to Darfur

2004-12-26 15:01

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has ordered the military to prepare to deploy up to 3 000 soldiers to the conflict-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, the Independent on Sunday reported.

The newspaper, without quoting sources, said the deployment would be discussed next month with senior military officials.

"When you decide to make an intervention you have got to be able to move fast," it quoted an unnamed minister as saying.

Any deployment by Britain would be undertaken as part of a new European Union rapid reaction force, it said.

Fewer than 1 000 peacekeepers are on the ground in Darfur, as part of an African Union force dispatched to help monitor a ceasefire between rebels and government troops.

But their presence, expected to be boosted to 3 200, has had little impact so far, amid continued violence between the two sides.

Darfur has been embroiled in conflict since February 2003, when two rebel movements launched a revolt against Khartoum, charging the Arab-led government had marginalised and persecuted the region's black African tribes.

In the subsequent crackdown, pro-government militias have attacked local communities, murdering and raping scores of civilians and driving more than 1.6 million from their homes, according to the United Nations.

The combined effect of the war and a devastating humanitarian crisis has left tens of thousands of people dead in 2004 alone.

The British charity Save the Children pulled out of Darfur on Tuesday, after 20 years of work in the desert region, after four of its workers were killed there in the past two months.

- AFP