KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) – A new joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Darfur on Monday from an AU mission which has struggled to stem nearly five years of brutal conflict in the western Sudanese region.
A handover ceremony, which saw AU troops swap their green berets for the blue of UN-mandated missions, took place at headquarters in Darfur’s main city of Al-Fasher but remained largely symbolic due to obstacles in deployment.
The mission, the UN’s largest, will eventually consist of 20,000 troops and 6,000 police and civilian personnel, but only around 9,000 troops and police are currently in place. The head of the new United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Rodolphe Adada appealed to the Khartoum government, which the United States accuses of waging genocide in Darfur, and force contributing countries to do more.
“We are determined to deploy the most robust force possible so that it can carry out effectively the difficult mandate the Security Council has entrusted to it,” Adada said as the UN flag was hoisted. “This means contributing countries deploy their personnel as quickly as possible.”
Adada also appealed to rebels to sit down at the negotiating table, adding that the mission’s bid to bring lasting peace and stability to Darfur depended on “the active cooperation of the government of Sudan.”
At least 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes since the ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003. The government’s response was to back the Arab Janjaweed militia and give it free rein to crack down on the rebels and suspected supporters among the civilian population.
Khartoum’s representative at the ceremony, North Darfur governor Osman Yusuf Kibir, stressed his government’s cooperation. “We are fully committed to implement what has been agreed upon with the United Nations and the government of Sudan and the African Union… we stress our full cooperation and commitment to the agreement.” The bulk of the new force comes from the 7,000 existing AU troops who have been trying to bring peace to Darfur for the past three years.
The underfunded and ill-equipped African force has faced an uphill struggle with deadly attacks on its camps. At least 50 African troops died during the mission, 12 in a single attack on an AU base in September that was widely blamed on one of the increasingly fragmented rebel groups fighting government troops.
The bolstered force will have to get to grips with the security threat, compounded in recent weeks by a deteriorating war of words between Sudan and neighbouring Chad as violence has spilled over the border. Sudan accused Chad on Friday of sending troops into its territory and said Chadian warplanes had bombed two areas of Darfur.
Chad said it was “outraged” by the accusations. UNAMID was authorised by the Security Council in July but it will not be fully operational until well into 2008 amid accusations Khartoum is stalling and that contributing countries are not supplying enough hardware, in particular helicopters vital to secure the safety of the force.
The force, which has a budget of 1.2 billion dollars for 2008, still needs 24 helicopters to patrol an area the size of France. Troops currently on the ground are mainly Rwandan, South African, Nigerian and Senegalese, accompanied by Kenyans, Gambians and a Chinese engineering company as well as 1,000 police from more than 25 countries.
Additional soldiers from Egypt, Pakistan and Ethiopia as well as police from Nepal are to deploy in the next two months. Efforts to broker peace in Darfur have repeatedly stumbled. Only one faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement signed a peace deal with Khartoum in 2006 but other groups have refused to follow suit until security has been restored.
No major rebel group attended the latest peace initiative in Libya in October. Darfur rebel groups continue to mount attacks, and accuse the Sudanese military and its militia allies of persistent assaults against both their fighters and civilians.