African Union extends Darfur force till year end
Sept 20, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The African Union said on Wednesday it would extend its underfinanced force in Sudan’s Darfur region until the end of this year after receiving promises of support from the United Nations and Arab states.
Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore, head of the AU’s security committee, said after a mini-summit on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly session that the force would receive logistic and material support from the United Nations.
Compaore also said the AU obtained a commitment from Arab states to finance the operation. Arab nations have promised funding in the past, but so far only NATO countries have helped with transport and other aid.
The mandate for the AU force of some 7,000 troops expires on Sept. 30. Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has rejected a U.N. force in Darfur, attended part of the meeting and again said he would not allow U.N. troops into Darfur.
But Compaore said Sudan is “disposed” to work with the United Nations, without elaborating.
“All of the negotiations and all of the contacts we have had clearly indicated that they are willing and are disposed to work together with the United Nations,” he said.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur from the conflict or disease and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes into squalid camps in a campaign the United Nations calls the worst human crisis and the Bush administration labels as genocide.
The U.N. Security Council last month authorized a force of up to 22,500 soldiers and police officers under United Nations command to take over Darfur operations from the AU troops.
But Sudan’s consent was set as a condition for a U.N. takeover and U.N. officials have said no troop contributors would go to the region without Khartoum’s permission.
At a news conference at the United Nations on Tuesday, Bashir said the Khartoum government would approve an extension of the AU force but adamantly rejected an eventual transition to a U.N. force, saying it was a cover for aiding Israel.
“It is very clear there is a plan to redraw the region,” he said. “Any state in the region should be weakened, dismembered in order to protect the Israelis, to guarantee the Israeli security.”
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno spoke to the AU council before it acted.
(Reuters)