Africans sign up for Darfur
02/08/2007 19:14  - (SA)  

Want to know more? Answerit can help.

AU mulls more troops for Darfur Move fast on Darfur - AI France to send troops to Sudan EU to plan Darfur peace mission Spotlight on peace in Darfur

Addis Ababa - Five African countries have pledged to contribute troops to a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, with Ethiopia saying it may offer as many as 5 000 soldiers, officials said on Thursday.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the 26 000-strong force to help end four years of rape and slaughter of civilians in the vast Sudanese desert region.

If the force is fully deployed it would be the world's largest peacekeeping operation.

The force is expected to absorb and take over from a beleaguered 7 000-strong AU force now in Darfur no later than December 31. The UN said the force, called Unamid, will have "a predominantly African character," as Sudan demanded.

Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia made the pledge during a meeting of the African Union's Peace and Security Council, said Said Djinnit, the AU peace and security commissioner.

'We aren't over-stretched'

Nigeria, which already has about 2 000 troops in the AU Darfur force, had said on Wednesday it was ready to send an additional battalion - about 700 solders. The other members of the AU force are Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia.

France, Denmark and Indonesia have offered to contribute to the joint mission. Australia said it would send a small number of doctors and nurses, but no troops or security personnel

Djinnit expressed confidence that African countries will be able to contribute the required number of troops.

"The response by our member states has been very encouraging," Djinnit told journalists at the end of the meeting.

Yohannes Gebremeskel, an Ethiopian Ministry of Defence official, said the country was considering sending 5 000 soldiers or "even more".

He said sending soldiers to Sudan will not affect Ethiopia's security despite it already having troops in Somalia, where it supports a fragile government, and tensions with neighbouring Eritrea, with which it fought a border war in the past.

"I don't think it will affect us too much," Yohannes said. "We aren't over-stretched."

What is this? Yahoo Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance
	News24 Headlines on your Facebook profile		News24 on mobile