African Union to boost troops deployment in Darfur

ADDIS ABABA, Dec 1 (Reuters) – The African Union (AU) will boost its peace monitoring operation in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region with the deployment of 196 Senegalese troops next week, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Camel riders pass in front of a Rwandan soldier belonging to the African Union Force, patrolling a section of the Abu Shouk displaced camp on the outskirts of El-Fasher, Sudan.(AFP).

“Construction of camps for AU troops at eight sites in Darfur is being completed and 196 troops from Senegal will be airlifted at the latest by December 10,” said Asane Ba.

Ba, a spokesman for the AU’s Darfur mission, said transport for the Senegalese deployment would be paid for by the Dutch government, and that those troops would be followed by a 196-strong contingent of Nigerian soldiers.

He said 196 troops from Tanzania and a similar number from Gambia would follow later. South Africa plans to send a large contingent including a bomb disposal unit, logistics unit and a protection force, he said without giving details.

“With the deployment of troops from the four countries, plus those from South Africa and the 830 troops already there, the number of the AU force in Darfur is expected to reach over 2,000 within a short time,” Ba said.

The 53-member AU plans to deploy a total of more than 3,000 soldiers, police, military observers and civilian support staff along with 150 ceasefire monitors in the arid region the size of France.

At least 1.5 million people have been uprooted from their homes since rebels took up arms against the government last year.

The rebels have accused the authorities in Khartoum of using mounted Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages — a charge the government denies.

The United Nations calls the situation one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, and estimates hunger and disease have killed at least 70,000 people in the last seven months alone. Khartoum disputes the figure.

The AU force’s main job is to monitor a ceasefire agreed in April which both sides accuse each other of breaking, but their mandate also allows them to protect civilians threatened with immediate harm.

The European Union has offered to fund almost half the $221 million per year the AU says its Darfur mission will cost. The Netherlands holds the rotating presidency of the 25-nation bloc.