African Union to transfer Darfur force to UN by September
May 15, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union on Monday agreed to transfer its peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region to the United Nations by the end of September or earlier.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji, chairing a ministerial meeting of the A.U.’s Peace and Security Council, said the A.U.’s 7,300-strong force in Darfur could leave before the Sept. 30 deadline if the U.N. force was ready.
The special U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, told reporters in Addis Ababa after the meeting ended. “It is now high time to take very concrete steps towards a stronger force.”
Adeniji said the meeting agreed to extend the deadline for remaining rebel groups to sign the peace agreement signed by the government and the main rebel group to May 31.
Abdelwahid al-Nur, leader of a splinter faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, and Khalil Ibrahim of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement have resisted international pressure to join the May 5 peace agreement.
The signing culminated two years of A.U. mediation and a last-minute push by the U.S., U.K. and others. Its prospects, though, have been dimmed because of the failure to persuade all the rebels to sign, and by fighting that has continued in Darfur though the treaty called for a cease-fire to come into effect 72 hours after it was signed.
The two holdout groups demand additional commitments from the government on power-sharing, security arrangements and compensation for the victims of a conflict that has killed at least 180,000 people and forced more than 2 million to flee their homes.
If they miss the deadline, “failure to sign would attract measures by the African Union including consultations with the United Nations Security Council,” Adeniji said. These measures would include some form of sanctions, he added.
A.U. Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said the African Union will push for a U.N. travel ban and asset freeze that would target those who may try to undermine the Darfur peace process and commit human rights violations in the vast, arid region.
Pronk called for continued efforts to press the holdouts to sign, saying “there could be no lasting peace in Darfur unless all the communities in Darfur are party to it.”
Pronk also called for more funds for humanitarian operations. U.N. and other aid groups have had to severely cut feeding and other programs after international donors failed to respond to repeated pleas for funds, though moves have been made to address that since the peace treaty drew renewed attention to Darfur.
Konare pressed the Sudanese government to allow U.N. experts to travel to Darfur to study conditions on the ground to determine what would be needed by a United Nations peacekeeping force and what support African peacekeepers would require during the transition.
U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, who just completed a mission to Sudan and Chad, said Monday that it was “absolutely essential that the African Union forces get a more robust mandate. That is the only thing we will have on the ground in the next few months.”
Darfur has been torn by violence since rebel groups made up of ethnic Africans rose up against the Arab-led Khartoum government in 2003. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the janjaweed who have been accused of some of the war’s worst atrocities. Khartoum denies backing the janjaweed but has said it will try to rein them in since the deal was signed.
Ensuring the janjaweed respect the cease-fire agreed to as part of the peace treaty is key to persuading Darfur rebels to comply with the peace deal, but there have been several janjaweed attacks since then, U.N. officials said.
“I urge the government of Sudan to produce its plan for the disarmament of the janjaweed and armed militia expeditiously and, in any case, within the 37 days required by the” peace agreement, Konare said.
(ST/AP)