Rwanda to deploy additional troops in Darfur

June 6, 2006 (KIGALI) — Rwanda has agreed to deploy an additional 680 troops to the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur, the Rwandan military said on Tuesday.

Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) spokesman Major Jill Rutaremara said the decision was agreed after the AU made a special request to the tiny central African nation, but did not specify when the troops will leave.

Rwanda currently has about 2000 troops, around 50 police officers and some 35 military observers in Darfur where more than three years of conflict, worsened by famine, has killed some 300,000 Darfuris and displaced 2.4 million.

Earlier, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said his country was ready to contribute peacekeepers to the region under the current AU framework or after the mission’s current mandate is handed over to the United Nations as planned.

“There are a number of things we have to discuss to be comfortable that we are contributing effectively and also to be sure we are contributing to something that is useful to the people of Sudan,” Kagame told reporters.

Currently there are around 7,000 AU troops in Darfur, but Western pressure has mounted on Khartoum to allow UN troops to bolster or take over from the under-equipped AU forces after the signing of a peace deal for the region in Abuja last month.

Some Sudanese officials are reportedly standing firm against such a change, equating the possible arrival of a UN force with a hypothetical Western attempt to recolonize the country.

(ST)