South Africa plans to increase troops in Sudan’s Darfur

Dec 17, 2006 (JOHANNESBURG) – South Africa is planning to increase the number of its troops in Sudan’s troubled Darfur after the withdrawal of some peacekeeping contingents from other African countries.

South Africa is planning to increase its troop strength in Sudan dramatically in the next rotation. The troops have already been sent Mamba vehicles to replace their soft skin vehicles. Peacekeeping is costing the country about R800 million a year, some of which is repaid by either the UN or the AU. Brig-Gen John Church, SA National Defence Force director of peacekeeping operations told a group of high ranking officers visiting South African troops deployed outside the country’s borders.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota argues that it is money well-spent because “South Africa would never be stable unless Africa is stable”. He said the refugees and illegal foreigners would keep coming to South Africa as long as there was war in their countries.

While things are relatively stable in the DRCongo and Burundi, South Africans and the African peacekeeping operation in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region are facing an uphill battle. “Things are definitely escalating… the question is, when and where will it peak and how bad will it be,” writes Captain Werner Klokow. He is a military observer in El Fasher and said in the past week tensions were taken to a new level. “Tonight an AMIS vehicle was hijacked close to our house and the night has seen a moderate volume of gunfire. It has prompted us to rehearse our emergency plan and we are constantly observing,” he wrote on Sunday.

Thus as South Africa is downscaling its presence in countries such as Burundi it is sending more troops to countries such as Sudan. Other conflict areas such as the Central African Republic are also appearing on the radar. “We can probably deploy anywhere in Africa. It is becoming easier for our troops because most of them have been deployed before and thus training is becoming easier, the only question is numbers,” Church said.

South Africa is one of the top ten troop-contributing countries to United Nations peacekeeping operations. This is beside short missions such the one in the Comores to secure that country’s election. And this from a country which was only supposed to be ready for peacekeeping operations in 2008.

In 2001 South Africa became the first country to deploy troops in the then highly unstable Burundi. The UN followed only two years later after the country was more secure. “We went in alone and the learning curve was high,” said Church, adding that: “We had to learn to work with other forces, respect each other and respect the local population.”

(SAPA)