More troops to join Darfur peacekeeping force

January 21, 2008 (EL FASHER) – One year after the beginning of its mission, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) will deploy more troops within the next two months to ensure better safety and protection of local civilians.

More troops are expected to be deployed in Darfur by March from Egypt, South Africa, Senegal and Bangladesh. Later in 2008, further troops will arrive from Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia. Tanzania will send an infantry battalion of 900 troops and advance party including engineers.

Last Sunday in Addis Ababa, the UN, AU and the Government of Sudan met in a Tripartite Mechanism meeting to discuss ways of accelerating the deployment of UNAMID to reach its authorized strength of 26,000 military and police personnel.

UN Under-Secretary- General for Department of Field Support, Susana Malcorra, told the meeting that UNAMID had successfully achieved a 60% deployment of troops by the end of December 2008.

The UNAMID Force Chief of Staff, Brigadier General George Ndana Kyaka, welcomed Tanzania’s decision to deploy an infantry battalion. “This will be the country’s first battalion in Darfur, and we hope it serves as a reminder to other troop contributing countries of the value of supporting the mission.”

Some of the new troops deployed will be part of the existing battalions that are being upgraded to meet the UN standards. An additional 150 troops will join the Senegalese battalion and an additional 200 will join the South African battalion.

The last 200 members of the existing Egyptian Infantry battalion are expected to join UNAMID by March while the Bangladesh Sector Reserve Company and Bangladesh Movement Platoon of 150 each are due to arrive by March.

Brigadier General added that “between now and March, several UNAMID battalions will be expanding in size as they are upgraded, while the advance parties of other battalions are also being sent. The result will be hundreds more troops within the next two months”.

Nevertheless he stressed the need for more troops to reach the targeted 26000 to fully fulfill its mandate by maintaining the fragile security situation and protecting civilians.

“I stress that we still need many more troops if we are to reach our deployment targets and fulfill our mandate,” Kyaka said.

(ST)