Senegal’s Wade says Bush warned him of US intervention in Darfur
By Wasil Ali
April 18, 2007 (DUBAI) — Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade revealed today that the president Bush warned him that if Africa does not succeed in halting the violence in Darfur then the US will intervene to end the crisis, the London based Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
In a speech before the US Holocaust Memorial Museum today, Bush warned Khartoum that it has a “few weeks” to allow a UN-AU force into Darfur before it moved to punitive measures unilaterally and through the UN. The US president added that he instructed his secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare a new UN draft resolution to impose new sanctions on Sudan.
Wade criticized the Arab league for not being serious about resolving the Darfur crisis adding that they have not provided “more than five million dollars even though this amount will suffice the AU troops for two or three days only”. Senegal’s leader said that he told the UN Security Council “to let us [Africans] solve this in-house; the African solution has to come from within” even though some African leaders wanted the international community to intervene. Wade acknowledged however that he advised Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir to allow UN troops in Darfur.
However Wade stressed that a number of African nations have done little to help saying that resolving the Darfur crisis “requires 25,000 troops and African countries have only supplied 7,000”. He also noted that these countries have not provided financial assistance to the African Union force in Darfur either.
There are about 2,000 Senegalese troops in Darfur as part of the African Union (AU) force. Following the death of five of its soldiers in Darfur at the hands of unknown militants, Dakar has threatened last week to withdraw its troops if the AU forces do not get additional support to help protect its soldiers.
(ST)