Dutch back African Union’s Darfur troop airlift

AMSTERDAM, Aug 3 (Reuters) – The Netherlands said on Tuesday it would fund a mission to fly 360 African Union troops to Sudan’s Darfur region this month to protect observers monitoring a ceasefire between rebels and the Khartoum government.

Dutch Development Minister Agnes van Ardenne has agreed to an AU request to pay for a contingent of Rwandan and Nigerian soldiers to be flown to Darfur, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.

The United Nations says the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding in western Sudan, where aid agencies say a conflict between rebels and Arab militia has killed at least 30,000 people and uprooted more than 1 million.

“The African Union asked us to arrange the transport of this protection force. She agreed to do that. They will be flown to Darfur,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Esther van Damme said. “We will be funding the airlift.”

The Netherlands, which holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, was in talks with the AU to hammer out precise details of the airlift.

The U.N. Security Council has given Khartoum 30 days to disarm and prosecute the Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, or face sanctions. The Darfur rebels, who launched an uprising against Khartoum in early 2003, and rights groups accuse Khartoum of sending the Janjaweed to attack non-Arab Darfur villages.