Sudan: AU to Double Peacekeeping Force in Darfur
The African Union (AU) agreed on Thursday to substantially increase the size of its peacekeeping force in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur, officials said.
AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit told journalists after a meeting of the pan-African body’s peace and security council in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that the enhanced force would be in place by the end of September.
Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda had already pledged to contribute extra troops, he added. . .
The AU acknowledged that its current 2,300-strong force, which it plans to increase to 3,320 by late May, was “extremely stretched” and could not fulfil its mandate.
The increased force would come to more than 7,700 men, including nearly 5,500 troops, 1,600 civilian police and some 700 military observers.
Not everyone’s so keen. Saying the AU mission is facing a disaster, Canada’s embassy magazine says that “If Canada Doesn’t Help Darfur, No One Will.” Chinese-led UN peacekeepers are also in Darfur, along with blue helmets from Egypt, Bangladesh, India, and Kenya. Fine — just don’t forget that Canada and China are the two major oil developers in China. (Oil from Sudan makes up one-tenth of all of China’s imported oil. . .”)
As a Save Darfur man myself, I’m watching in agony as the Bush administration backs off from its stance of last year condemning the genocide there, even as efforts in Congress (led by Republicans no less) heat up to put pressure on Sudan.
With the AU force unlikely to make much of a difference without an effective mandate, the UN worthless, the EU unwilling and America either unable or unwilling itself (perhaps for reasons mainly concerned with cultivating Sudan’s intelligence capabilities in the Middle East and East Africa as the LAT pointed out last week), its only a matter of how long before the starvation, disease and slaughter wipes out the great majority of the tribes in Darfur.
My earlier optimism that we would so something along the lines of Operation Provide Comfort in N. Iraq (back in 1991) is vanished. I feel pretty stupid writing all those op-eds for months exhorting Americans to get involved and support the administration if it stepped in to secure a portion or all of Darfur.
The only Canadian company that was involved in Sudan’s oil industry was Talisman and they sold their stake to ONGC India. They’ve remained the past two years to continue some small “community development” projects, but basically wiped their hands of it after alot of public pressure.
Apparently the Chinese are contributing to the new peacekeeping force in Sudan – anybody know the numbers?
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