Tanzania wants safety guarantee before sending troops to Darfur

DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 3 (AFP) — Tanzania said Wednesday it would only make good a pledge to send troops to the African Union mission in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region if it received a guarantee they will not be targetted.

Rwandan soldiers are greeted by Nigerian peacekeeping soldiers, right, as they disembark from a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane at the El Fasher airport, Saturday, Oct.30, 2004 in Darfur as part of the African Union peacekeeping mission to Sudan.

“We want reassurance from Sudan that troops sent to keep peace in the region will not be attacked by parties involved in the local conflict there,” Tanzanian Defence Minister Philemon Sarungi told AFP by telephone from the administrative capital, Dodoma.

Tanzania is among several African countries that have expressed willingness to contribute to the AU force monitoring a shaky ceasefire and providing limited protection to civilians in Darfur, where a rebel war broke out in February 2003.

Since then, tens of thousands of people are thought to have died as a result of the conflict, while 1.5 million people have been displaced.

The AU is in the process of increasing the size its mission in Darfur sevenfold, to over 3,000 personnel.

Tanzania earlier agreed to contribute 100 troops to the mission.