Deal reached on joint force for Darfur

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – African, Arab, European and U.N. leaders agreed in principle Thursday to a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force for Sudan’s Darfur region.

Sudan, which has strongly opposed allowing U.N. troops in the country, did not give the plan its unreserved approval because officials needed to consult with their superiors, said the country’s U.N. ambassador, Abdul Mahmoud Abdelhaleem.

The force could be as large as 27,000, including the existing 7,000-member AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, but the leaders did not lay out a timetable for the force to begin work partly because Sudan had reservations.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the additional personnel could include as many as 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police officers. A timetable for the expanded force to begin work was not announced partly because Sudan retained some reservations, including the question of who would be in charge.

“The next step is for the U.N. and AU to call a meeting of the non-signatories (of the Darfur Peace Agreement) … and the government of Sudan. It should take place in the next couple of weeks to resolve outstanding issues by the end of the year,” Annan told reporters.

The U.N. Security Council voted in August to replace the African Union’s 7,000 troops, an underpowered force, with 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers. But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has so far refused to allow their deployment, saying they would be “neocolonialists.”

The agreement was announced at a meeting in Ethiopia that brought together senior officials from the AU, the Arab League, the European Union, Sudan, the United States, China, Russia, Egypt, France and a half-dozen African countries.

The expansion of the existing AU force will take place in three phases, said Annan, who had wanted to try to stop the bloodshed in Darfur before he leaves office on Jan. 1.

An African Union Peace and Security Council meeting will be held in the Republic of Congo on Nov. 24 during which Sudan is expected to present its final views, Annan said.

After years of low-level clashes over water and land in the vast, arid Darfur region, rebels from ethnic African tribes took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-dominated central government in 2003. Khartoum is accused of unleashing militia forces known as the janjaweed, who are accused of many of the atrocities in a conflict that has killed some 200,000 people and chased 2.5 million from their homes.