ADDIS ABABA, 10 April 2007 — Sudan yesterday gave its approval for the United Nations to start sending reinforcements to African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, the AU’s peace and security commissioner said. “The government of Sudan has made a series of remarks and questions. Today, the AU and UN provided them (with) all the clarifications and they have agreed on this second package,” Said Djinnit told a press conference.
He was speaking following talks between UN, AU and Sudanese government officials in Addis Ababa over the three-stage plan for international peacekeeping in Darfur, drawn up last November. Djinnit said the Sudanese representatives agreed on all but “one outstanding point” of the second-stage plan to send UN troops to support the AU force, but did not specify what this point was.
They promised to respond to this outstanding issue “within days,” after speaking to the government in Khartoum, Djinnit said. He said the agreement was a “very important step forward” and said the AU was now urging the UN to “move quickly” to implement the plan.
However, a member of the UN delegation noted that details of the third stage, which foresees UN and AU peacekeepers operating in a joint force in Darfur, were still not agreed. “It is a very important move. But it is only the second phase, not the end. We are just at the middle stage,” the diplomat said.
Khartoum has objected to the idea of a hybrid force and insisted the AU keep control of it. The Sudanese delegation did not comment yesterday’s talks, which will be followed by further meetings on Darfur at the UN on April 16 and 17 and in Libya on April 28, according to Djinnit.
The AU has about 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur but, underfunded and badly equipped, its force has been subject to repeated attacks in the past few weeks. On April 1, it suffered its deadliest attack since its deployment in 2004 when five of its soldiers were killed by gunmen. In July, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution authorizing the deployment of a 20,000-strong UN-AU force.
Darfur has been ravaged by four years of civil war between rebels from the local black population and Arab militias supported by the Sudanese Army. The UN estimates 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced in the conflict, although Khartoum contests the figures.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is due to visit Khartoum today to urge support for UN reinforcements, and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is also due in the region tomorrow. Earlier yesterday, China urged Sudan — its main African ally — to be more flexible on the UN-AU plan.
“China appreciates Sudan’s efforts in restoring peace in Darfur, but is expecting more flexibility on the Annan plan,” Chinese envoy Zhai Jun told reporters in Khartoum. Annan last year floated a plan for the United Nations to prop up the embattled African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, but Khartoum has stalled, arguing that it would amount to the deployment of Western troops on its soil.
“There is no fundamental contradiction between Sudanese fears and the Annan plan,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry official said as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Sudan. The international community has urged China to start using its economic leverage to put pressure on Khartoum over Darfur, where four years of US-backed diplomacy have failed to stem the bloodshed.
After a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir on Saturday, African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare backed Khartoum, saying that there had been a clear agreement in Addis Ababa that there would be a hybrid force consisting of an African force under AU command with logistical, financial and administrative assistance from the United Nations.
