Rwanda ready to send troops for UN mission in Sudan

KIGALI, March 5 (AFP) — Rwanda is ready to send troops to Sudan to be part of a UN mission planned for the country now a peace settlement has been signed to end a 21-year civil war, a military source in Kigali said Saturday.

“Within the framework of the UN Mission in Sudan, Rwanda has been asked to provide a 200-man strong company to establish the UN headquarters” in Khartoum and the main southern town, Juba, a senior army officer told AFP.

“The government of Rwanda agreed to the request and we are supposed to prepare troops,” said the officer, who informally speaks for the central African country’s army.

“The indication is that they would leave, or that part of the company at least, would leave 45 days after the mandate is given,” he added.

The Khartoum government and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which had since 1983 fought for an end to Arabic and Islamic domination of the mainly Christian and animist black south, in January signed an overall peace accord.

The United Nations plans to send in a mission to monitor implementatation of the military and political terms of this agreement and the officer here said the Kigali government expected a UN Security Council green light within anything between days and “a couple of weeks’ time.”

Rwanda has already deployed troops in Sudan’s western Darfur region, where separate rebel groups are fighting a government-backed Arab militia accused of atrocities against the local black population, but that mission is an African Union one and the main task of the soldiers is to protect AU observers.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame went to Khartoum late last month for talks with government officials there.