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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SUDAN: African Union to send protection force to Darfur
ADDIS ABABA, 6 Jul 2004 (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) is set to send a 300-strong armed "protection force" into the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan, officials said on Monday.
Sam Ibok, the director of the Peace and Security Division at the AU, said the force would be dispatched as soon as possible "to restore confidence in the region". He warned that the situation could still deteriorate, adding, however, that he was confident that a solution to the crisis could be found.
More than one million people have been displaced by conflict in Darfur while more than 150,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad to escape attacks by militias on non-Arab populations. Last week, the United Nations and the United States urged the Sudanese government to rein in the militias and give humanitarian workers easy access the region.
Nigeria and Rwanda had said they could contribute to the force, Ibok added. Other countries possibly willing to send troops included Tanzania and Botswana, he told journalists. Speaking on the eve of an AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, he said the force was part of a US $26-million mission funded by the AU and the international community.
"We cannot describe what has happened in Darfur as genocide, but it has the potential of deteriorating or degenerating into something quite serious," Ibok said. "We also believe there has not been any detailed investigation to make a pronouncement one way or the other," the diplomat added.
"We are also working towards what we call a protection force. We are discussing with the Sudanese government on the deployment. That force is essentially to go in and create some kind of confidence so that refugees [and] internally displaced persons can return," Ibok said.
"If they don't have the confidence [that] they are going to be safe and secure, they will not be able to return," Ibok told reporters. "The force is also to protect the observers who are
being deployed in Darfur."
Monitors would also be deployed along the Chad-Sudan border, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) decided on Sunday. This was because of cross-border activity by militia groups.
Monitors and observers have already been deployed in five areas in the strife-torn region, including a refugee camp in Chad. The full AU observer mission will consist of 12 members of a ceasefire commission, and 132 observers, including 60 from AU member states.
In a report presented to the PSC, AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said he was deeply concerned about the situation and feared that it could deteriorate. The AU has called for greater efforts to secure a political solution and announced that talks between the government and rebel forces would be held in Addis Ababa on 15 July.
On Saturday, the Sudanese government formally committed itself to the immediate disarmament of the Janjawid and other "outlaws" operating in Darfur in a communiqué issued at the end of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's three-day visit to Sudan and Chad. Annan met and talked to internally displaced persons and refugees who had fled from the ongoing conflict.
At a press conference in Khartoum on Friday evening, Annan said: "My message, on behalf of the UN, to the government and other parties to the conflict is therefore clear: The violence must stop, the Janjawid militia must be disarmed and demobilised, and the ceasefire agreement must be respected by all parties."
Last week, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, said "there was no doubt that Khartoum had sponsored, armed or recruited" the Janjawid, who have been blamed for committing most of the atrocities in Darfur. Other human rights organisations have accused the government-allied militia of having "committed numerous human rights violations in Darfur, including murders, rapes, and the looting and destruction of villages".
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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