AU peace council to discusses UN takeover in Darfur
Feb 24, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ministers from Africa’s peak peacekeeping body will meet next week to discuss proposals for United Nations troops to take over operations in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, officials said Friday.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council last month agreed in principle to wind up the AU Mission in Darfur (AMIS), the pan-continental group’s first peacekeeping operation deployed in 2004.
Peace and Security Commissioner Saïd Djinnit said that ministers at the meeting in the Sudanese capital Addis Ababa would discuss the arrangements for handing over to the UN.
“The purpose of the meeting is to decide on the proposal that the United Nations takes over the AU mission in Darfur,” he said.
“In January, the PSC accepted in principle to transfer AMIS to the UN (and) next Friday the ministers will discuss the modalities of this transition.”
The AU force of 7,800, including troops and observers, has struggled to maintain order in the western region where a three-year conflict has claimed 300,000 lives and displaced more than two million people.
War broke out in February 2003, when black ethnic groups launched a rebellion against Khartoum, which was brutally repressed by the Arab Islamist regime of President Omar al-Beshir.
Beshir is bitterly opposed to an international mission, saying only an African initiative can end the conflict.
In December, the AU said it needed an extra 130 million dollars (109 million euros) to meet the 465-million-dollar cost of the Darfur force, which is funded mainly by the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.
(ST)