Sudan says AU needs resolution to increase Darfur forces

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Sudan said on Sunday the African Union would need Khartoum’s agreement and a new resolution before increasing the number of forces protecting monitors of a shaky ceasefire in the troubled Darfur region.

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail also told reporters that some of the Darfur official militias, known as the People’s Defence Force (PDF), would be disarmed as part of efforts to secure the remote area, where a rebellion has raged since February last year.

“If they want the monitor protection forces to exceed 305, the number agreed upon, this will need a new resolution from the AU,” Ismail said in Khartoum, adding they also needed Sudan’s agreement to do so.

The African Union decided at a summit in early July to deploy about 300 Nigerian and Rwandan troops to Darfur to protect more than 100 AU observers of an April ceasefire there.

It had proposed increasing the number of forces to 2,000 and expanding their mandate to peacekeeping. Sudan objects to any peacekeeping mandate but had said it would not object to more troops if needed.

After years of conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers over dwindling pasture and water, two rebel groups took up arms last year accusing Khartoum of supporting marauding Arab militias known as Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

SUDAN DENIES CHARGE

The Sudanese government denies the charge, calling the Janjaweed outlaws. The U.N. says more than one million have fled the fighting, triggering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Sudan has less than two weeks to prove to the U.N. Security Council that it is making progress to disarm the Janjaweed and ensure security in Darfur, or face possible sanctions.

Ismail said Sudan, a budding oil-producer, had raised its oil prices twice this year to raise funds to meet the needs of those displaced by the conflict.

Although, with a recent increase of police forces in Darfur, some refugees are returning home of their free will, rights groups and rebels have accused Sudan of absorbing Janjaweed into the uniformed PDF militias, creating more distrust among refugees.

Ismail said some of those PDF would be disarmed, but said the fact that some people were returning to their homes was proof they did not distrust the PDF and the armed forces.

“The plan to disarm part of the local PDF…this is part of our programme and we are going to do it,” he said.

But he added if there was no trust in the PDF, “Why every day are we receiving thousands of the IDPs (Internally Displaced People) who are returning home?”

Ismail said the government delegation to Darfur peace talks, headed by the minister of agriculture, was leaving on Sunday for the Nigerian capital Abuja with a full mandate to represent the government at unconditional negotiations. Talks are due to begin on Monday