Former Sudan rebels welcome UN force, warn deployment still faces hurdles

KHARTOUM, March 25 (AFP) — Sudan’s former southern rebels on Friday welcomed a UN decision to send 10,000 peacekeepers to secure the peace accord they signed in January with Khartoum but stressed that many details need to be worked out before a deployment.

SPLA troops line up during a public rally in Rumbek on January 10, 2005 to celebrate a final peace agreement with the Khartoum government that was signed in Kenya January 9. (AFP) .

“We are very happy with the resolution … but we are now going to have to work out all the details,” Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) spokesman Samson Kwaje told AFP.

The UN Security Council on Thursday approved the deployment of 10,000 UN peacekeepers to shore up the January 9 peace agreement that put an end to the 21-year-old north-south civil war in Sudan, Africa’s largest country.

“We still have to look at the specific humber of troops. There could be more, there could be less. Then there is the issue of the exact shape of the deployment and that of the nationalities involved,” Kwaje said.

“We are not happy with the present composition of the force,” he stressed.

The SPLM warned immediately after the peace deal was signed that the composition of the peacekeeping force could be the main bone of contention, voicing concern over the inclusion of countries considered close to the regime in Khartoum.