Agence France-Presse,
KHARTOUM (AFP): African nations have committed enough troops to keep the peace in Darfur so there is no need to involve peacekeepers from outside the continent, the African Union Commission chairman said Sunday.
“After the commitments we have received (from African countries), we will not have to resort to non-African forces,” Alpha Oumar Konare said after a meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.
“We have sufficient African troops for the deployment” of a force to keep the peace in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region, Konare added.
Some 7,000 African soldiers from 26 countries currently participate in an African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur that was deployed in August 2004.
The UN Security Council on July 31 authorised the dispatch of a UN-AU “hybrid” force to Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.1 million have been displaced by four years of conflict.
The Security Council resolution, which came after months of diplomatic wrangling, authorised the deployment of 26,000 troops to Darfur. That would make it the world's largest peacekeeping force, for what the UN has called the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe.
Konare said that sufficient funds were now needed to finance the deployment of the force.
“I believe the ball is now in the court of the UN, which promised to finance the operation,” he said.
The AU chief also announced that an international conference on Darfur would be held in New York in September. “It will be sponsored by the UN and the AU,” he added.
The Addis Ababa talks brought together representatives of the AU, Arab League, the five permanent UN Security Council members, Egypt, the European Union as well senior officials from Gabon and Congo.
During those talks, significant progress was made on plotting a way forward to stem the violence in Darfur — notably through agreement on the deployment of a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force.
President Beshir, who had long opposed any significant UN role in Darfur, arguing it would be a violation of its sovereignty and could worsen the situation there, expressed his backing for Konare.
“(We) support the AU force, which consolidates the efforts of the Sudanese government to ensure security, peace and stability in Darfur,” Beshir said after Sunday's meeting with Konare, who left Khartoum immediately after the talks ended.
The war in Darfur erupted in February 2003 when rebels from minority tribes took up arms to demand an equal share of national resources. That prompted a heavyhanded crackdown from the government forces and proxy militia called Janjaweed.
