African troops will quit Darfur by the end of September – AU

Sept 4, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The African Union has decided to end the mandate of its troops monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Darfur on Sept. 30, the head of the AU mission in Sudan said on Monday.

The head of the AU mission in Sudan, Baba Gana Kingibe, said soon afterwards in a speech in Khartoum: “The AU Peace and Security Council met today in Addis Ababa and decided to reaffirm that its mandate will end on September 30 in Darfur.”

It was not immediately clear whether the AU comments meant the force would indeed pull out or whether diplomatic efforts would produce a deal that would allow it to stay.

One African diplomat said Sudan had softened its position because it realized expelling the AU would end implementation of an AU-brokered peace deal between it and one rebel faction.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told CNN: “We’re going to continue to put pressure on the government of Sudan, work with the African Union and others who are interested. We’re not going to give up on these people.”

Presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Monday the government was merely responding to the AU’s assertion that it did not have the money or equipment to sustain its 7,000 troops in Darfur beyond the end of this month.

“The AU has refused to extend its mandate beyond September 30. If they don’t want to extend their mandate, they have to go,” he said.

A U.S. and British-backed United Nations resolution, which passed last Thursday and was immediately rejected by Khartoum, says more than 20,000 U.N. troops should take over peacekeeping duties from AU forces which have been unable to end the violence that has ravaged Darfur for 3-1/2 years.

AU troops were to fill the gap until the arrival of the U.N. troops by the end of December and ultimately be absorbed into the U.N. operation.

(ST/Reuters)