Sudan's govt agrees to African Union troops in Darfur

Tuesday July 6th, 2004.

By Opheera McDoom

ADDIS ABABA, July 6 (Reuters) - Sudan reluctantly agreed on Tuesday to the deployment of about 300 African Union troops to protect ceasefire monitors in the remote Darfur region, where fighting has driven more than a million people from their homes.

A senior AU official said on Monday forces from Nigeria and Rwanda were ready to deploy as soon as possible to the region.

"As long as this is a will and the decision of the (AU) commission to take protection forces for the monitors, we are not going to block it," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Reuters on Tuesday in Addis Ababa which is hosting an AU summit. "(Though) we'd prefer not to take this step now."

The AU has already sent unarmed observers to Darfur.

After long conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers over scarce resources in the arid western region, rebels took up arms last year, accusing Khartoum of arming marauding Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to ethnically cleanse the area.

The government denies the charges. Ismail said Sudan alone would disarm the Janjaweed.

The United Nations says the fighting has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis with more than a million displaced Africans and about 200,000 refugees encamped in neighbouring Chad.

Delegates at the AU summit say Sudan understands it is in its interests to keep efforts to resolve the conflict within Africa.

"Either it will be the African Union or it will be the U.N. and I think Sudan knows that they will have more leeway with the AU," said one delegate.

A senior AU official has said Darfur was a major concern of the summit because the racial element of the conflict had far-reaching and dangerous implications across Africa.

The summit is considering a resolution on Darfur voicing grave concern about human rights violations by the Janjaweed militias and the potential for regional instability.

Sudan made written commitments to speed up peace talks, allow full aid access and disarm the Janjaweed after a visit to Darfur and Chad last week by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.