AU force in Darfur has no funds beyond October

Aug 10, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The African Union does not have enough money to pay the 7,000 troops monitoring a shaky truce in Darfur beyond October, the pan-African body said on Thursday.

AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said a donor pledging conference in July provided some $181 million for the mission.

“This money will suffice only until mid-October so far,” he said, adding he hoped donors would come through.

Sudan has categorically rejected a U.N. takeover of the AU mission which is struggling to end the violence that has only increased since a peace agreement was signed between the government and one rebel faction in May.

The AU mission costs just under $40 million a month to run, but in order to do the job properly the AU also asked for more equipment like attack helicopters.

U.N. officials said without additional funding, almost 3.6 million Darfuris could see a period where troops were withdrawn or unable to work to deter rape, murder and pillage in Sudan’s remote west.

The top U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said many people including Western nations thought the AU force could stay in Darfur until the end of the year.

“That is a misconception and that’s extremely risky,” he told reporters in Khartoum.

“If the African Union have to leave because they cannot pay their soldiers anymore and the United Nations is not being allowed to come … then you have a void in between,” he added.

Pronk had previously said donors had pledged about 70 percent of the cash requested by the AU. But on Wednesday he said he had miscalculated.

Despite a May peace deal, violence has worsened in Darfur with aid access at its lowest since the conflict began 3-1/2 years ago. Eight humanitarian workers were killed in July alone as tensions rise because of popular and armed opposition to the AU-brokered May accord.

Signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions, the deal is opposed by tens of thousands of Darfuris who say they want more compensation for war victims, more political posts and a role in monitoring the disarmament of the Arab militias blamed for much of the Darfur violence.

Many of the larger Darfur camps housing 2.5 million people displaced by war have seen violent demonstrations against the peace deal, with frustrated civilians even attacking the AU, restricting their ability to function.

Khartoum likens a U.N. takeover of the force to a Western invasion, saying it would attract Jihadi militants and create an Iraq-like quagmire.

But critics say it really fears U.N. troops would be used to arrest government officials likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

Mostly non-Arab rebels tooks up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.

(Reuters)