EU seeks funds for Darfur peacekeepers
Jan 22, 2007 (BRUSSELS) — The European Union has urged increased support for the peacekeeping force in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, as the EU’s executive arm declared that it had no more funds to offer.
EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels on Monday, committed to continue funding the contingent, known as AMIS, until a new force combining African Union and United Nations troops can be deployed, probably in about six months.
“The (EU) council urges other countries and organisations to provide additional financial and material support for AMIS,” they said in written conclusions from their talks.
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said a lot of money was needed but that the European Commission’s budget for such peace-oriented security operations in Africa was all but used up.
“There’s a financial problem. As it stands, the Commission has no more money,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. “We need an enormous amount of money, and I can probably whip up something.”
But “I would like to know where the other donors are,” he said, and singled out the Arab League “which committed to contributing 150 million dollars (115 million euros).”
The conflict in Darfur, a desert region the size of France, between rebels and militias backed by Sudanese troops has resulted in the deaths of more than 300,000 people and displaced more than two million others since 2003.
African Union countries sent troops there in 2004 but the mission has struggled to contain the violence.
The EU is the main financial backer of the force and has provided it with around 242 million euros (313 million dollars) from a special fund aimed at supporting peace initiatives in Africa.
But its budget amounts to 300 million euros for the 2004-2008 period.
A senior European Commission official noted that AMIS “is virtually bankrupt” and suggested the force’s funds will probably only last until “the end of January, beginning of February.”
In their conclusions, the ministers also expressed the EU’s “readiness to consider further measures notably in the UN framework against any party which obstructs” the new combined force.
“I have rarely seen sanctions that are useful,” Michel noted.
(AFP)