Sudan, UN to hold talks on outstanding issues in Darfur deployment
January 18, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese government and the United Nations will discuss next week the outstanding issues in the deployment of the hybrid force Darfur.
Khartoum has refused to allow non-African units in Darfur including Thai and Nepalese troops; also it rejects a team of Nordic engineers to come help build roads and airstrips. Besides that, some technical questions like night flights and force status are still unresolved.
Technical teams from the Sudanese government and the United Nations are expected to meet on January 27 in Addis Ababa on the sideline of the African Summit to discuss an agreement before a meeting between the Sudanese president and the UN Secretary General.
Officials of the UNAMID and the Government of Sudan began negotiations in Khartoum, on Monday January 14 to regulate deployment and operations of the force that is seeking to bring peace to the strife-torn Darfur region.
Currently, UNAMID, which took over from an African Union (AU) mission on 31 December, has only 9,000 troops out of its mandated strength of 26,000, and it lacks essential logistics and equipment, including helicopters.
Sudanese envoy at the UN, Abdelmahmoud Abdelhaleem, said that consultation is underway between Sudan, UN and AU on the hybrid force and obstacles facing the forces, the official SUNA reported.
He added that there is no new development on the provision of helicopters but contact is progressing with Ukraine and Russian to provide the facilities.
(ST)