Darfur peace fragile, AU needs more troops – commander
EL-FASHER, Sudan, June 4 (Reuters) – The African Union force charged with observing a ceasefire in the wake of a very fragile Darfur peace deal must be given immediate extra funds and 4,000 more troops, the AU mission head in western Sudan said.
Under intense global pressure, one of three rebel factions signed a May 5 deal with the Sudanese government to end three years of rape, killing and looting in the remote western region. Two other factions have refused to sign, despite the threat of U.N. sanctions, saying it did not meet their basic demands.
“This agreement has been a very fragile one extracted under very severe conditions — it was like extracting something from a lion’s jaw,” Collins Ihekire, the military head of the 7,000-strong AU mission in Darfur, told Reuters on Sunday.
“We must be empowered now to make sure that we can minimise any problems,” he said, adding if the deteriorating security situation worsened it would be difficult to get the parties back to negotiations.
Ihekire said he had wanted an extra eight battalions, or around 5,600 troops. But the AU said donors would only fund another five battalions — 4,000 troops.
Donors will meet on June 20 in Brussels to pledge more funds for the cash-strapped mission, which the United Nations hopes to take over if it can win agreement from Sudan.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million forced to flee their homes during more than three years of violence in Darfur, which the United States calls genocide. Khartoum rejects the charge but the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.
Since the peace deal reached between Sudan Liberation Army faction leader Minni Arcua Minnawi and the government of Sudan, the AU has come under increasing pressure in Darfur.
Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, have attacked towns where the AU has bases, killing dozens of civilians.
Darfuris in the volatile Kalma Camp in South Darfur looted the AU compound and beat to death an interpreter in May. Angry anti-peace plan demonstrators have stoned AU troops and burnt down their bases in Zalingei town and Kalma Camp.
“What is preventing us is … lack of ability on the ground,” Ihekire said.
“It is due to a paucity of resources,” he said, adding he did not have enough troops to secure the region the size of France.
He said the fact that only one rebel faction had signed the deal would be an obstacle to implementation. Efforts are still ongoing to get the other two factions to sign.
Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir had travelled to Yei in southern Sudan on Friday to try to reconcile Minnawi and his SLA rival Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur.
But Nur refused to attend the meeting, leaving the others waiting for two days.
On Saturday Nur’s faction told Reuters in Nairobi the AU had failed to mediate the conflict and called on the United Nations to take over the peace process.
“The African Union mediation team has failed to realise peace in Darfur,” said Nouri Abdalla, an adviser to Nur.