Sudan welcomes new African peacekeeping chief for Darfur

July 3, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese defense minister welcomed on Tuesday the new force commander for the African Union mission to Darfur and said Khartoum was “ready to cooperate with all parties” to achieve piece in the violence-wracked western Sudan region.

Gen. Martin Agwai, from Nigeria, arrived in Sudan a day earlier to replace another Nigerian at the head of the current 7,000-strong AU mission that began to deploy in Darfur in June 2004.

The under-equipped and understaffed force has been struggling to bring a measure of peace back to the region, where over 200,000 people have died and 2,5 million fled from their homes since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against Khartoum.

Sudan’s government denies accusations it retaliated by unleashing allied militias known as the janjaweed, but has refused to extradite a Cabinet minister and a suspected janjaweed chief wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Sudan also resisted for months a Security Council plan for U.N. peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed AU mission, before accepting in June a compromise deal for a “hybrid force” to deploy.

Defense minister Gen. Abdel Rahim Mohammad Hussein vowed Tuesday that his government would cooperate with the new AU force commander, who is also due to be in charge of UN troops once they arrive.

“Our government is ready to cooperate with all parties to achieve peace in Darfur,” Hussein was quoted as telling Agwai by Sudan’s official news agency.

However, the minister “stressed the role of African troops (in Darfur), because their understanding of the issue,” SUNA said.

Prior to his appointment in Darfur, Agwai was chief of defense staff for the Nigerian armed forces.

He has also served as deputy force commander for the United Nations mission to Sierra Leone, and deputy military adviser at the department of peacekeeping operations at the U.N.’s headquarters in New York.

(AP)