Sweden, Norway to send joint engineering unit to Darfur force

August 17, 2007 (STOCKHOLM) — Norway and Sweden will send a joint engineering unit with about 350 members to support an international peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sweden’s foreign minister said Friday.

The Scandinavian unit will be deployed for a year starting in early 2008. It will help build roads and a communication infrastructure for the 26,000-strong peacekeeping force, a joint operation by the African Union and the U.N.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the exact size of the Scandinavian unit would be decided in consultations with the U.N.

“We are counting on about 350 members, including about 150-160 from Sweden,” Bildt told The AP by telephone.

Four years of warfare in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and driven some 2.5 million others from their homes.

The conflict began when ethnic African rebels launched an insurgency, complaining of discrimination by the Arab government in Khartoum. The government is accused of responding by unleashing the janjaweed, a militia blamed for widespread killings, rapes and other atrocities against ethnic African civilians. Khartoum denies the claims.

An African Union force of 7,000 troops on the ground has been too small and too poorly equipped to stop the bloodshed.

Sudan agreed in June to a compromise deal for the African Union to deploy jointly with the U.N. in a “hybrid force” to end the violence.

(AP)