| August 2, 2007
The African Union met Thursday to
encourage member states to put more
troops into the Darfur peacekeeping
mission approved by the United Nations
Security Council.
Ambassadors to the pan-African body
gathered at its Addis Ababa
headquarters to discuss the force,
which faces the daunting task of
stabilising the war-torn western
Sudanese region.
The 7 000 AU peacekeepers in
Darfur now will be replaced by a
so-called "hybrid" force of
AU and UN troops, following the UN
Security Council's unanimous approval
of the deployment on Tuesday.
The new force will be the world's
largest peacekeeping operation, with
26 000 troops and police mandated
to protect civilians in Darfur and
support a moribund peace agreement
signed last year.
AU Commissioner for Peace and Security
Said Djinnit told Agence France-Presse
that the meeting aimed to "sensitise
member states on the need to make
contributions to the hybrid
operation".
Resolution 1769 authorising the
deployment says the new mission
"should have a predominantly
African character and the troops
should, as far as possible, be sourced
from African countries".
Yet the first countries to express
interest in sending troops were the
likes of Sweden, Norway, France and
the Netherlands.
The European Union, which has already
provided more than $550-million to the
AU force, said it would consider a
troop contribution.
Rwanda and Nigeria make up the bulk of
the current African contingent and
both countries vowed several months
ago to send more men to the troubled
region where more fighting between
rival tribes was reported on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Nigeria offered to send
a fourth battalion of about 700 men to
Darfur.
The under-funded force has struggled
to pay soldiers' salaries and the AU
is hoping the UN presence in the new
mission will offer attractive
guarantees for new contributions.
Malawi, which already has a battalion
in the current force, said it would
consider sending more.
"We already have troops in Darfur
but if we need to send more it would
depend on the capacity of the Malawi
army," Paul Chiunguzeni, director
of political affairs in the Foreign
Ministry, said.
"Malawi has been an advocate of
sending troops to Darfur and with the
new arrangement it means that
everybody has now to send troops to
support the initiative," he
added.
While making no direct pledge to
Darfur, other countries have
dispatched soldiers to the African
Standby Force, which is expected to
eventually number 25 000 troops.
The deployment in Darfur of part of
this new force is to be discussed
during the Southern African
Development Community summit starting
in Lusaka on August 16.
At least 200 000 people have been
killed and more than two million
displaced by the combined effect of
war and famine, since Darfur rebels
complaining of marginalisation rose up
against Khartoum in February 2003.
The African Union sent its first ever
peacekeeping mission to a war zone in
2004 but has been unable to curb the
violence and secure steady supply
lines for the thousands of aid workers
delivering relief to the population.
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