African troops only to stay if Sudan okays UN force – AU

Sept 5, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The African Union will pull its troops out of Darfur by Sept. 30 unless Sudan drops its opposition to the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force there, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The AU reached this decision at a meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa Monday, said spokesman Nouredinne Mezni. “We are ready to review the mandate in the event that Sudan and the U.N. agree on the transition to a U.N. peacekeeping force,” he said.

On Monday, Sudan gave African Union troops a one-week ultimatum to accept a deal that would block the proposed 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur or else leave the region, a step that would likely worsen the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

The AU’s formal mandate expires on Sept. 30 and it has asked the U.N. to take over the peacekeeping mission.

At an emergency meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa held after the Sudanese ultimatum, diplomats agreed that the African peacekeepers could stay on for a few months if Khartoum approved the transition to a U.N-led force, said Mezni.

African foreign ministers will meet in New York on Sept. 18 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the crisis, he said.

The removal of the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur would raise the prospect of a new upsurge of fighting in the region, where some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since 2003. Five million people live in the region.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan Tuesday criticized Sudan’s call for the departure of the African peacekeepers.

Annan also expressed concern at Khartoum’s opposition to the deployment of a beefed up U.N-led peacekeeping force in the remote western region. He warned that Sudan would be unable to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.

“I know that yesterday an important decision was taken by the Sudanese government, which I don’t consider initially positive,” Annan said.

“The international community has been feeding about 3 million people in camps and if we have to leave because of lack of security, lack of access to the people then what happens? The government will have to assume responsibility for doing this and if it doesn’t succeed, it will have lots of questions to answer before the rest of the world,” he said.

“I’ve always said that international forces will go there to help the Sudanese people, to help the government protect the people. We’re not going to invade,” said Annan.

Khartoum has already launched a major new offensive in Darfur, reportedly involving thousands of troops and militias backed by bomber aircraft and is believed to be massing more forces in the region.

The AU force, which is underfunded and staffed, has struggled to keep stability amid an upsurge of violence in recent months. The U.N. wants to deploy a much larger force with a stronger mandate to stop the fighting.

(AP/ST)