Chinese peacekeepers to arrive in Darfur Saturday

November 23, 2007 (KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Chinese engineers are to arrive in Sudan’s troubled Darfur province Saturday as part of the vanguard for a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission to be in place next year, a UN spokesman said.

“They will be arriving in Nyala, south Darfur at 0900 (local time),” U.N. spokesman Ali Hamati told AFP by telephone from Darfur.

“They will be around 135 engineers coming as an advance team and part of three platoons that will be responsible for paving the way by digging wells, building roads and bridges,” said Hamati, adding they would also be bringing a medical team.

“These are the guys who will pave the way under the HSP (heavy support package) for UNAMID to deploy,” said Hamati referring to the 26,000-strong AU-U.N. force due to begin peacekeeping operations in Darfur early next year.

In all, 315 Chinese engineers are scheduled to deploy to the region by next month, joining two battalions from Nigeria and Rwanda as well as a police unit from Bangladesh already in the province as part of the new force.

The AU-U.N. force is tasked with ending nearly five years of bloodshed in which more than 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease in Darfur while 2.2 million others have been left homeless.

China, which is the biggest buyer of Sudan’s oil, has been accused of shielding Khartoum – accused of fanning the violence in Darfur – from international sanctions.

(AFP)