Sudan welcomes UN peacekeepers deployment in the South
KHARTOUM, March 26, 2005 (KUNA) — The Sudanese government Saturday welcomed the UN security council resolution to send peacekeeping forces to the African country.
Foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters the international peacekeepers would not undermine Khartoum’s national sovereignty.
Ismail said the peacekeeing force would be assigned to safeguarding the peace agreement signed by the government and the rebels last January.
According to the UN resolution, approved unanimously last Thursday, 10,000 troops and 715 policemen will be deployed in Sudan to monitor the peace accord, which ended over two decades of civil war.
Ismail said his government did not want the involvement of foreign troops, but it was the wish of rebels to have an international observation mission.
UN security council members hoped the peacekeepers would pave the way for ending violence in the Darfur in Western Sudan.
The UN peacekeeping mission will have a six-month mandate.