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Ethiopia to Send First Contingent to Darfur Early in New Year


The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)


NEWS
1 January 2008
Posted to the web 2 January 2008
Addis Ababa

As the first batch of peacekeepers it pledged to Sudan, Ethiopia is to send 850
troops early in the new year to serve with a joint United Nations-African Union
force in Sudan's Darfur region, Reuters reported citing an AU official as
saying on Monday.

Egypt has also pledged to send the same number of troops to Sudan, according to
the report..



"Ethiopia .and Egypt will send a battalion each , numbering 850 troops, as the
first batch of their contribution to the UN-AU Joint African Peacekeeping force
in Darfur," the report quoted Assane Ba, spokesman for the AU Peace and
Security Commission.

Ethiopia has pledged to deploy up to 5,000 troops to the joint mission.

"Troops from Asian countries are also expected to be deployed in Darfur early
in the new year," the AU Spokesman added. he added.

Ethiopia has sent troops to Rwanda to contribute towards peace in the country
which was emerging from the ....Genocide.

The country has currently deployed troops who served and are serving under the
AU and UN missions in Burundi and Liberia.

AU troops in Darfur were swapping their green headgear for U.N. blue berets on
Monday as the joint force formally took over the peacekeeping duties from the
all-African peacekeepers.

However, the handover was largely seen as symbolic and unlikely to bring much
immediate change for the people of Darfur.

The plan is for the force ultimately to comprise 20,000 soldiers and 6,000
police, but numbers are currently well below those levels.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has opposed non-African troops,
delayed allocating land to the force in Darfur, demanded the right to disable
the mission's communications during "security operations" and refused night
flights.

Rights groups have also criticised the international community -- mainly
Western nations -- for refusing to provide 24 helicopters, seen as vital for
the mission to function effectively in the vast region.

The conflict flared in February 2003 when rebels took up arms against the
government, saying Khartoum discriminated against non-Arab farmers and
neglected the region. Khartoum mobilised Arab militia to help quell the revolt.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in Darfur with 2.5
million forced to flee their homes by looting, killing and rape.


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