Sudan approves UN reinforcement of AU force
April 9, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Sudan on Monday gave its approval for the United Nations (UN) to start sending reinforcements to African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Darfur, the AU’s peace and security commissioner said.
“The government of Sudan has made a series of remarks and questions. Today the AU and UN provided them (with) all the clarifications and they have agreed on this second package,” Said Djinnit told a press conference.
He was speaking following talks between UN, AU and Sudanese government officials in Addis Ababa over the three-stage plan for international peacekeeping in Darfur, drawn up last November.
Djinnit said the Sudanese representatives agreed on all but “one outstanding point” of the second-stage plan to send UN troops to support the AU force, but did not specify what this point was.
They promised to respond to this outstanding issue “within days”, after speaking to the government in Khartoum, Djinnit said.
He said the agreement was a “very important step forward” and said the AU was now urging the UN to “move quickly” to implement the plan.
However, a member of the UN delegation noted that details of the third stage, which forsees UN and AU peacekeepers operating in a joint force in Darfur, were still not agreed.
“It is a very important move. But it is only the second phase, not the end. We are just at the middle stage,” the diplomat said.
Khartoum has objected to the idea of a hybrid force and insisted the AU keep control of it.
The Sudanese delegation did not comment on Monday’s talks, which will be followed by further meetings on Darfur at the UN on April 16 and 17 and in Libya on April 28, according to Djinnit.
The AU has about 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur but, underfunded and badly equipped, its force has been subject to repeated attacks in the past few weeks.
On April 1, it suffered its deadliest attack since its deployment in 2004 when five of its soldiers were killed by gunmen.
In July, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution authorising the deployment of a 20,000-strong UN-AU force.
Darfur has been ravaged by four years of civil war between rebels from the local black population and Arab militias supported by the Sudanese army.
The UN estimates 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced in the conflict, although Khartoum contests the figures.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is due to visit Khartoum on Tuesday to urge support for UN reinforcements, and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is also due in the region on Wednesday.
Earlier on Monday, China urged Sudan — its main African ally — to be more flexible on the UN-AU plan.
(AFP)