Bush frees money for African troops in Sudan

WASHINGTON, July 15 (AFP) — US President George W. Bush directed the Pentagon to spend six million dollars in “commodities and services” to help transport African Union troops to Sudan’s violence-wracked Darfur region.

Rwandan troops operating under the Africa Union mandate walk inside the AU base in Kab Kabiya, Sudan. (AFP).

Bush’s decision was announced in a memorandum for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that was made public by the White House.

The move came hours after the US State Department announced that Rice would visit Sudan and the Darfur region next week for her first trip to the African country since taking office.

Fighting has raged in Darfur since February 2003, when local groups launched a rebellion in the name of the region’s black African tribes against marginalization by Khartoum’s Arab-dominated government.

The Darfur conflict has claimed between 180,000 and 300,000 lives, with some 2.4 million civilians displaced from their homes. An additional 200,000 people have fled into neighbouring Chad.