African Union needs more cash to end suffering in Darfur

By ANTHONY MITCHELL

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, June 2, 2005 (AP) — The African Union needs more cash to expand its peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s troubled Darfur, the group’s peace and security commissioner said Thursday as he headed to the region on a fact-finding tour.

Rwandan soldiers belonging to the African Union force wait to board a plane to be dispatched to the Darfur region of Sudan.(AFP).

Last week, international donors pledged US$300 million (A?245 million) in cash and more in kind for the AU Darfur operation.

But “all the announcements are more or less related to logistical requirements, which are needed of course, but I was expecting to have more cash,” said African Union’s Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit. “The donors have been forthcoming in terms of logistical support but in terms of meeting the budget we have just not seen it.”

Before the donor conference, the AU had appealed for US$466 million (A?381 million) to more than triple its existing force of 2,270 and to equip it with six helicopter gunships, 116 armored personnel carriers, tents and fuel by September.

The AU will consider increasing its force to 12,300 if the situation does not improve, which would require a budget of US$723 million (euro577.34 million), AU officials said.

Djinnit was on the way to Darfur ahead of planned resumption of long-delayed talks intended to end violence in Darfur.

“This visit will allow the African Union to say loud and clear exactly what the humanitarian and security situation is on the ground in Darfur,” Djinnit said.

AU and Chad officials will mediate the peace talks between the government and Darfur rebels set for June 10 in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja.

At least 180,000 people have died, many from hunger and disease, and about 2 million others have fled their homes to escape the conflict between rebels on one side and government troops and Arab militias on the other.

Djinnit plans to meet African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, leaders of AU’s mission in the country, aid workers as well as government and Darfur rebel leaders.

The crisis in Darfur erupted when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the ethnic Arab militia known as Janjaweed committed wide-scale abuses against ethnic Africans.