Ethiopia, Bangladesh offer helicopters for Darfur hybrid force

February 5, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — Ethiopia and Bangladesh have offered to jump-start the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur by loaning it helicopters to fly troops and supplies around the vast region in western Sudan, officials said Tuesday.

Ethiopia promised the use of three attack and two transport helicopters, while Bangladesh’s offer is less clear, said Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

“On helicopters, there is some progress,” he told reporters. “We’re trying to get to the bottom of what the offer is and what help they might need.”

Also Tuesday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he obtained commitments from Sudan President Omar al-Bashir to facilitate the deployment of the joint African Union-U.N. force.

The announcement followed weeks of frustration for Ban and other diplomats who have struggled to overcome Sudan’s objections to the peacekeeping efforts.

Until now, Ban and other U.N. officials had repeatedly said they were unable to persuade any country from offering even a single helicopter, an essential tool for navigating the broad desert area. The choppers also are needed to protect the peacekeepers from attacks.

Ban said more such offers are urgently needed to help quell the violence in Darfur, where ethnic African groups rebelled against the Arab-dominated national government in early 2003. More than 200,000 people have died in five years of fighting.

“We need our forces in the theater of operations as soon as possible,” Ban told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on his latest efforts in Sudan, Chad and Kenya.

Ban said the offer of helicopters from the two nations was just a starting point, and more help is urgently needed to quell violence in Darfur.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said the developments as overdue but nonetheless welcome.

“The secretary-general has brought back some steps forward, but he is quite right not to exaggerate them and to wait until they’ve been implemented before hailing them as real progress,” he said.

At Sudan’s insistence, the Security Council agreed the force should be predominantly African. But the Khartoum government has refused to approve Thai, Nepali and Nordic units, even though 90 percent of the ground troops and 75 percent of the total proposed force are from Africa.

“Our understanding is that, even though it may have to still be worked out at the technical levels, we will first try to deploy African peacekeepers who are readily available,” Ban said. “Then, as this deployment is taking place, we will try to deploy Thailand and Nepalese soldiers.”

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary general for peacekeeping, has warned that Darfur’s mission will ultimately fail without more troops and equipment.

The peacekeeping force has less than half of the planned 26,000 troops and police and lacks crucial equipment to pacify a region nearly the size of France, Guehenno told The Associated Press during a tour of Darfur last month.

The U.N. mission took over peacekeeping Jan. 1, merging with an AU force that was too small and under-equipped to stop the fighting.

At least 50 AU troops have been killed, and until recently it had temporarily stopped all patrols in Darfur and evacuated from refugee camps, leaving 2.5 million displaced people defenseless.

The U.N. mission has resumed some patrols and returned to refugee camps.

(AP)