Africa Summit calls on Sudan to protect civilians in Darfur
ACCRA,July 30, 2004 (dpa) — An African peacekeeping force proposed the troubled Darfur region of Sudan should be enlarged and the Sudanese government should protect civilians, a summit of African leaders agreed Friday.
The news came just before the United Nations Security Council prepared to vote on a resolution on Darfur, which U.N. officials have called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
The AU is preparing to deploy a force to protect its military observers and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the western Sudan region, where more than a million people have been displaced and tens of thousands reportedly killed by pro-government militia fighting a popular rebellion.
The 13 African leaders in attendance “agreed that this African force needs to be significantly expanded,” said a statement from the summit, which was originally convened on the crisis in Ivory Coast.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current chairman of the African Union (AU) emerged from the closed-door talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra and told reporters that the leaders had expressed serious concern about the situation in Darfur.
“We are calling on the government of Sudan to play its role in protecting all the people of Sudan,” Obasanjo said. The summit statement urged the government to “fulfil its commitment to put an end to the violence.”
The U.S. Congress recently labelled the situation in Darfur “genocide”.
Obasanjo and the chairman of the African Union commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, are to finalise the process of recruiting the peacekeeping force from African nations and getting financial assistance from the international community, the statement said.
Obasanjo declined to specify the number of troops are to be sent.
It remained unclear whether Khartoum will accept a peacekeeping force on its soil. Cabinet ministers have said publicly they would fight foreign forces sent to the country.
Human-rights groups have accused pro-government Arab militia known as Janjaweed of waging a campaign of terror in Darfur, killing the black African indigenous population and raping women in mass numbers.
Two rebel groups from Darfur rose up against the government in 2003 and have been involved in stop-start peace talks throughout the year.