Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Agenzia Fides)- Sudan has reached an agreement with the African Union and the United Nations Organisation to deploy a 'hybrid' peace-keeping force in the western Darfur region devastated by civil war since 2003 with grave violation of human rights.
After two days of talks with the government of Khartoum, a representative of the African Union announced that an agreement had been reached to replace the existing 7,000 AU peace-keepers present for some time in the region with a new contingent of 19,000, instead of the 23,000 foreseen by the plan put forward by the United Nations.
The question of who will command and control the peace force is still being negotiated. Sudan is against a UN command and would prefer the troops to be under the AU. The government of Khartoum continues to insist that it wants African troops on its territory, not men from other continents. These two requests have given rise to scepticism among some members of the UN Security Council who see in them an attempt to prevent the new peace force from working effectively. Many experts say in fact that African troops alone have neither the means nor the ability to run a mission as complex as that of Darfur, they would need technical support from other powers. However non African countries are not likely to put their men under any other command except the UN. A UN representative said a technical agreement had been reached for general command to be entrusted to the UN which would delegate the running of daily military operations to the African Union command on the field. The intention is to send mainly African troops limiting extra-continental assistance to transport, telecommunications etc. However it appears to be difficult to find a sufficient number of African countries willing to send troops to the area which means there will be need of forces from countries like Pakistan and China, which have already offered to send soldiers to Darfur.
Darfur covers an area of about circa 490,000sq km and has an estimated population of about 6 million. Most of the land is high plain, the mountainous central area is dominated by Mount Marrah (Jebel Marra) 3,088mt above sea level, the north of the country is covered with sand dunes, while the south is mainly savannah. The main towns are Al Fachir and Geneina. The region has been devastated by violence since 2003 when a group of rebel militia attacked government forces. This led to the formation of other anti-government groups countered by regular army troops and pro-government militia Janjaweed which adopted a “scorched earth policy” attacking the civilian population suspected of supporting the rebels. The conflict has caused the deaths of 200,000 and forced most of the rest of the population to take shelter in camps for displaced persons or refugees in camps in nearby Chad. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/6/2007 righe 42 parole 525)
