High-level AU delegation to assess situation in Darfur

KHARTOUM, March 11 (AFP) — The African Union sent a delegation to Sudan’s Darfur Friday on a 10-day mission to assess the political, security and humanitarian needs in the troubled region.

The delegation is headed by AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit, includes AU mission in Sudan chief Baba Gana Kingibe, as well as officials from the United States, United Nations and European Union, the AU said in a statement.

Before leaving Khartoum, the delegation held talks with Sudanese officials and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative in Sudan Jan Pronk about how to bolster the AU’s peacekeeping role in Darfur.

The statement said the AU has 2,061 monitors and military observers in addition to 112 civilian police personnel deployed in Darfur, a region in western Sudan around the size of France.

On its first major peacekeeping operation, the pan-African body has been struggling to deploy troops rapidly and has failed to stem the violence on the ground.

Several rights groups have charged the AU force lacks broad international support and financial backing.