Chad: EU to deploy 3 000 troops

2007-10-16 08:45

Luxembourg - European Union foreign ministers gave their final approval on Monday to the deployment of a 3 000-strong EU peacekeeping force for one year to help refugees and the displaced along Darfur's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.

The EU ministers also appealed to northern and southern Sudanese political factions to stick to a 2005 peace pact, fearing that a collapse of the delicate treaty in that unrelated Sudanese conflict could lead to new civil war, complicating international efforts to end the Darfur crisis.

Javier Solana, the EU foreign and security affairs chief, said the Chad force "will be the third peacekeeping operation for the EU in Africa and is an important part in the stabilisation of Africa".

He added: "We are in a very unstable situation at the moment" in the area of Sudan and its neighbours. EU officials estimated the cost of the force at $142m for one year.

Security needs 'to be assured'

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the task of the EU force would be to improve security and make it easier for aid groups to do their work in the camps that bordered Sudan's Darfur region.

Kouchner said: "It is a reconstruction mission, a development mission and a humanitarian one. Security needs to be assured" for the refugees and the mission "would not secure the border areas".

United Nations officials estimated that about three million people had been uprooted by conflicts in the region, including the fighting in Darfur and unrelated rebellions in Chad and the Central African Republic.

The majority - some 2.25 million - were Darfuris displaced within Darfur. About half of the EU force would be French.

Poland, Belgium to provide troops

Kouchner said that other EU nations like Poland and Spain came forward at the EU talks on Monday to pledge troops and other hardware like planes needed to support the EU mission.

Ireland, Sweden, Poland and Belgium were expected to provide between 80 to 300 troops each, said EU officials.

The EU mission would be in addition to a planned 26 000-member joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force which was to deploy in Darfur itself. The EU force could start deploying "in the first few weeks of November", said Kouchner.

He said the force, which would be run from a military operations centre near Paris, had already received pledges of more than 2 500 troops from several EU nations.

The EU force would also be supported by new EU aid worth about $70m, which would be used to train a UN police force, which would be responsible for security inside the refugee camps. The EU force would maintain security around the camps, said officials.

Aid groups urged the EU earlier this week to ensure the force remained impartial. They said the force should not be seen to be dominated by French soldiers, saying that would make it difficult for it to work effectively.

- AP