African Union to deploy 4,500 troops to western Sudan’s Darfur region

By GILBERT DA COSTA, Associated Press writer

ABUJA, Nigeria, Oct 15, 2004 (AP) — The African Union is planning to deploy 4,500 troops to the war-ravaged Darfur region in western Sudan by the end of next month, Nigeria’s president said Friday.

The 53-nation African Union already has about 300 unarmed African Union military observers in Darfur to monitor a regularly violated cease-fire from April. African Union officials had previously said the force would grow to about 3,500 troops.

A statement issued by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo’s after a meeting with Western diplomats in Abuja said the force will be made up of five battalions.

One battalion from Rwanda will be deployed in Darfur by Sunday, and another battalion from Nigeria will be deployed by Oct. 30, the statement said.

There was no word on which other African countries would provide troops for the remaining three battalions, which are expected to be on the ground in Sudan by the end of November.

Obasanjo is currently serving as chairman of the African Union.

The U.N. health agency on Friday estimated at least 70,000 people have died since March from poor conditions in refugee camps in Sudan’s Darfur region and warned that more will die at the same rate unless countries provide more money.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and another 1.4 million have been driven from their homes by Arab militias since February 2003.

Originally a clash between African farmers and Arab nomads, the conflict has grown into a counterinsurgency in which pro-government Arab militia have raped, killed and burned the villages of their enemy.

Peace talks aimed at resolving the crisis is expected to resume in Abuja later this month.