UN to end S. Sudan troop deployment by year-end

Sept 19, 2005 (NAIROBI) — The deployment of UN peacekeepers in southern Sudan is on schedule and is expected to wrap up by year end, despite infrastructural challenges posed by the current rainy season, officials said on Monday.

Vladimir Zhagora, the senior liaison officer for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said the mission expects to wrap-up deployment of up to 10,000 troops in the region by the end of the year.

“The deployment is going on according to schedule … we expect to finish by the end of the year,” Zhagora told AFP by phone from the southern Sudan capital of Juba, where he coordinates deployment.

“But we are facing many challenges. It is a rainy season and that causes major problems. So we are forced to spend a lot of money on air transport,” he added without giving the amount.

Non-existence of essential infrastructure in the the region has hampered smooth deployment. Most key roads are still being demined and this has barred road transport, according to UN and humanitarian officials.

The mission must also muster enough troops as it is currently well below its anticipated strength with less than half the number of peacekeepers expected in the region.

Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, Nepal and Zambia are all slated to provide troops but there have been numerous deployment delays. Denmark and Italy are taling charge of security at the mission head office in Khartoum.

The troops are overseeing the return of normalcy in southern Sudan after region’s rulers Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a peace agreement in January that ended 21 years of fighting, which was dubbed Africa’s longest-running and most intricate conflict.

The conflict and its induced famine and diseases had claimed at least 1.5 million people and displaced more than four million others, most .

(AFP/ST)