UN to seek funding for larger AU force in Darfur
Feb 15, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — UN Sudan envoy Jan Pronk is to seek donor funding to expand the existing African Union force in Darfur pending Security Council approval for deployment of a larger UN force, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The world body was working with the African Union to identify “resources requirements for the transition period to be submitted to the pledging conference scheduled to take place in Brussels” next month, spokesperson Radhia Achouri said.
“We want the AU in the next couple of months to be enabled to expand its activities during the transition period and we will request the donors to provide necessary resources for that purpose,” she added.
Her comments followed talks in Addis Ababa Tuesday between Pronk and AU Peace and Security Council commissioner Said Djinnit.
The meeting focussed on “the needs to be addressed to ensure the smoothness and success of an AU/UN transition if and when it takes place,” Achouri said.
The AU has said it has no funds to operate beyond March and is considering a handover of its Darfur mission to the United Nations.
The UN Security Council earlier this month approved contingency planning for UN peacekeepers to take over from the AU force in Darfur but, despite strong pressure from Western governments, Khartoum has so far remained implacably hostile to the deployment of UN troops there.
The spokesperson of the UN Mission in Sudan, Radia Achouri, said in a press conference Wednesday that the total number of UN forces in Sudan had reached 6147 troops till now, out of a total number of 10,000.
Radhia explained that 614 observers, 164 officers and 5,369 troops are now working within the UN mission in Sudan.
On a tour of Darfur earlier this week, Pronk stressed that the initiative for a UN force “initially came from the AU Peace and Security Council” and that the Security Council had “yet to state its final stand,” Achouri added.
During his visit, the UN envoy also met with commanders of the main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, and urged them to “unite and commit to a negotiated solution to the conflict in Darfur and stop fighting,” she said.
“He also urged them to refrain from alliances with groups of other countries and to distance themselves from and isolate those who are involved in such acts and in arms trafficking and violations of the arms embargo.”
Fighting broke out between rival wings of the SLA last year. Army mutineers and rebels from neighbouring Chad have since been active in Darfur adding to the complexity of alliances in the wartorn region.
The conflict first erupted three years ago pitting ethnic minority rebels against the Khartoum government and its Arab militia allies.
(ST)