Nigeria to upgrade Darfur deployment to battalion

ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug 13, 2004 (PANA) — Nigeria has increased the number of
troops for deployment to the troubled Darfur region of western
Sudan under the auspices of the African Union (AU) from a company
to a battalion (about 750 troops), according to sources at the
president’s office.

Already, President Olusegun Obasanjo has asked the country’s army
to furnish him with the logistical needs for deployment.

On the eve of its summit in Addis Ababa last July, the AU said it
would send 300 peacekeepers to Darfur, where attacks by Arab
militiamen have killed thousands and displaced about two million
people.

The initial deployment of 300 troops was expected to guard 60 AU
peace monitors as well as to patrol refugee camps and border
areas between Sudan and Chad, where thousands of the Sudanese
have fled to safety from the rampaging Janjaweed militia.

Obasanjo said after a meeting with President Omar El-Bashir in
Khartoum last July that the Sudanese leader had allowed an
initial deployment of 300 peacekeepers, with further permission
to deploy up to three battalions.

Rwanda and Tanzania are also expected to contribute troops to the
peace mission.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army, which had initially prepared one
company for deployment as requested by Obasanjo, has started
working out the details of the logistics needed for a battalion.

The Army headquarters, which already has a department in charge
of peacekeeping, is currently preparing a stand-by battalion
which could be deployed at “very short notice.”

Despite the increase in number of troops to be deployed, sources
close to the Army headquarters told PANA the military was not
under any pressure as it is about to receive two battalion
strength of troops from Sierra Leone, where their tour of duty
under UNAMSIL is expected to end by October.

Nigerian Army Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo resumed in June as
the head of the AU mission in the Sudan.