Eight African Arab nations to send troops to Darfur

Mar 28, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Tuesday that eight African Arab nations have agreed to send troops to Sudan’s Darfur region to enforce an African Union(AU) peacekeeping mission there.

Saleh told reporters after a closed-door session of the ongoing18th Arab League (AL) summit that the decision of sending Arab troops to Darfur was made under Sudan’s request, which indicated the league’s support to Sudan’s position against a deployment of international forces in Darfur.

The AU deployed a 7,800-strong forces in Sudan’s western Darfurregion in 2004 to observe a shaky ceasefire agreement between Khartoum and the Darfur rebels, but the forces have been sufferingfrom poor funding and inadequate resources.

The AU earlier supported in principle to hand over the peacekeeping mission in Darfur to the UN forces, which has been strongly opposed by the Sudanese government.

Clashes flared up in Darfur in February 2003 when local farmerstook up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of neglecting the barren area. Thousands of people have been killed and more displaced in the violence.

Arab leaders attending the summit on Tuesday rejected the deployment of international troops in Darfur without Sudan’s consent.

“We rejected sending international forces to Darfur without Sudanese government’s approval, but decided to send Arab forces into AU forces as an assistance to the AU peacekeeping mission in the region,” said a final declaration of the summit, a copy of which was obtained by Xinhua.

Some 10 heads of state of the 22-member pan-Arab body kicked off their summit in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Tuesday for talks on pressing regional issues, including Sudan’s Darfur conflict, the Iraqi situation and the Palestinian question.

(Xihnua/ST)