UN awaits contact from AU about troop swap in Darfur

Jan 18, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The United Nations is awaiting word from the African Union about replacing AU troops with a U.N. peacekeeping force in the war-ravaged Darfur region, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.

A day earlier hundreds of Sudanese demonstrated against the replacement plan. George Somerwill said the U.N. was expecting to hear from the AU on details of the troop switch in the coming two weeks.

In Al-Fasher, the capital of South Darfur on Tuesday, hundreds of Sudanese demonstrated against deploying U.N. troops calling the move “a new invasion.”

Last week, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called for a stronger and more sophisticated military force and Jan Pronk, the top U.N. envoy in Sudan, urged creating a force of as many as 20,000 troops to provide security in the vast and arid region so over 2 million Sudanese refugees can return home.

By comparison, the AU maintains a 6,964-strong military and police force. The group has said it accepted Annan’s call in principle and that its ministers would make the final decision at the end of March.

The AU faces the daunting task of monitoring the April 2004 cease-fire that is being regularly broken by all parties in what the U.N. has called as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Originally a clash between African farmers and Arab nomads over the distribution of scarce resources, the conflict has grown into a counterinsurgency in which pro-government Arab militia have raped, killed and burned the villages of their enemy.

The government denies allegations it supports the Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed.

(AP/ST)