Official: UN troops readying for Sudan

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON, Feb 25, 2005 (AP) — The U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations said Friday the world body is preparing to dispatch 10,000 peacekeepers to Sudan to monitor an accord reached to end the civil war in the African nation.

“We are gearing up to deploy 10,000 troops in Sudan to support the North-South process,” Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters as he prepared for talks in Washington at the Pentagon and State Department.

Guehenno said “a breakthrough has been achieved, but it is a fragile process,” and added that “there is potential for spoilers in the south.”

The United Nations has said it plans to deploy troops within six months, during which time the government and rebels have committed under a Jan. 9 peace deal to set up a national power-sharing administration with an autonomous south. At the end of a six-year transition period, the 10 southern states will hold a referendum on whether to become independent.

Sudan’s southern civil war has pitted the government, led by Arab Muslims who dominate the north, against rebels fighting for greater autonomy and a greater share of the country’s wealth in the mainly black Christian and animist south. The conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

Africa’s longest-running conflict was sparked in February 2003 when two non-Arab African rebel groups took up arms for more power and resources. The government responded with a counterinsurgency campaign in which a mostly Arab militia known as the Janjaweed has committed wide-scale abuses against tribes it says are allied with the rebels.

Disease and malnutrition are believed to have killed more than 70,000 of the nearly 2 million displaced in Darfur since March.