UN Ki-moon recommends troops to Darfur border countries
Feb 20, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon recommended Tuesday the deployment of up to 11,000 international troops to Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians caught in the spillover from Sudan’s Darfur conflict.
In a report to the UN Security Council released Tuesday, Ban proposes two options that include political and military components.
The first option would have a very mobile force of 6,000 UN troops backed by aerial reconnaissance and intervention.
The second option, which Ban favors, would deploy a more ground-based mission with about 10,900 soldiers if contributing nations are unable to provide enough aircraft.
In both options, the mission’s military component would be based in Chad’s capital N’Djamena with a liaison office in the Central African Republic’s Bangui.
An operations headquarters would be located in Abeche in eastern Chad.
The force would be split in four sectors, including three in Chad and one in the Central African Republic.
Ban indicates in the report that he has taken steps for the deployment to the region of a mission tasked with setting the stage for the troop arrival.
The preparation mission, to be called MINUTAC, would have a chief of mission based in N’Djamena and military, police and civilian personnel. Some 35 military officers would establish contacts with Chadian and Central African forces.
Ban’s report had been requested last month by the UN Security Council.
At the time, the council expressed “its concern about the persistent instability along the borders between the Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic and about the threat this poses to the safety of the civilian population and the conduct of humanitarian operations.”
Relations between Sudan and its two central African neighbors have deteriorated since fighting in the western Darfur region that started in 2003 spilled over into eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced since fighting broke out in Darfur between rebel groups and government forces in February 2003.
(AFP)