More Nigerian troops deployed to Sudan’s Darfur

LAGOS, Aug 10 (AFP) — Nigeria is sending another battalion of troops — some 700 soldiers — to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region as part of an African Union (AU) reinforcement mission, a defence spokesman said Wednesday.

Nigerian troops prepare to board a U.S. military plane in the Nigerian capital Abuja, October 28, 2004.

“The troops from the 174 Battalion in Ikorodu, Lagos, will depart Nigeria for Sudan today,” Brigadier-general Ganiyu Adewale told AFP.

He said the troops were the second battalion to be deployed by Nigeria to the war-torn country to replace three companies of Nigerian soldiers in Darfur.

“As you are aware, the first battalion left early last month. The third will leave in about two months’ time,” he said.

“The troops’ deployment is part of Nigeria’s contributions to the AU mission in Sudan,” he added.

In April, the AU agreed to increase the size of its Darfur mission from the 3,320 to be deployed by the end of May to 7,731 by the end of September and appealed to the AU’s 53 members to support the operation with troops and cash.

Fighting has raged in Darfur since February 2003, when local groups launched a rebellion in the name of the region’s black 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, while an additional 200,000 have fled into neighbouring Chad.