UN, African Union want Darfur force on ground
April 17, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. and the African Union said Thursday they want their 26,000-strong peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur soon.
The U.N. Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council met behind closed doors, the day after the U.N. secretary-general expressed extreme disappointment at the lack of progress in ending the five-year conflict in Darfur. Also on the agenda were Sudan, Somalia, the Ivory Coast and Congo – and how to improve cooperation and coordination.
South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current Security Council president, told reporters following the meeting that both organizations want the AU-U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur known as UNAMID “fully staffed as soon as possible.”
“The message was very clear from both councils that we would want UNAMID to succeed in Sudan,” he said.
Only about 9,000 troops and police from the AU-U.N. hybrid force are currently deployed in Darfur. The U.S. is urging the U.N. to get 3,600 new peacekeepers on the ground by June, saying additional troops are the best hope of increasing security in the conflict-wracked Sudanese region.
In a report to the council on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decried “the lack of political will among all the parties to pursue a peaceful solution to the Darfur crisis.”
“I am extremely disappointed at the lack of progress on all fronts in the efforts to address the situation in Darfur,” he said.
“The parties appear determined to pursue a military solution; the political process stalled; the deployment of UNAMID is progressing very slowly and continues to face many challenges; and the humanitarian situation is not improving,” Ban said.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million have fled their homes since ethnic African tribesman took up arms in early 2003, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese Arab-dominated government.
The upsurge in fighting and use of military force, especially in West Darfur, “has overshadowed the political process and created an environment in which the prospect of negotiations has become ever more remote,” he said.
“In addition to the undue suffering that such fighting creates for the civilian population, the ongoing violence sends a strong signal that the parties are not ready to end the conflict through dialogue,” Ban said. “I therefore call on all parties to urgently commit to a cessation of hostilities and to meaningfully engage in the political process led by the special envoys.”
On Somalia, Ethiopia’s ambassador to the African Union, Sahle Work Zewde, reiterated that the AU wants the U.N. to take over peacekeeping quickly from the 2,600 AU troops from Uganda and Burundi currently deployed in the country.
“We really believe there is a peace to keep,” Zewde said, stressing that the AU troops have been there for a year and are doing “a good job.”
Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken nation of 7 million people into chaos.
In a report to the council last month, the secretary-general urged the international community to build the foundations for peace in Somalia by strengthening U.N. political efforts and the AU force and considering the possible deployment of a new 8,000-strong multinational force.
He said this could pave the way for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops who helped Somalia rout an Islamic movement in December 2006 and the possible deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 27,000 soldiers and 1,500 police.
The U.K.’s U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said he hopes to introduce a Security Council resolution on Somalia in the coming weeks in response to Ban’s recommendations.
“The secretary-general’s report made clear that the situation doesn’t allow us to go immediately to a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping force, but we do want to make progress in that direction and with that as the goal,” he said.
(AP)