Government 'accepts' UN troops in Darfur

The Sudanese government has ‘agreed in principle’ to the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the western region of Darfur alongside African Union forces, officials said after a high-level meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

"A hybrid operation is agreed in principle, pending clarification of the size of the force," stated a communiqué released at the end of the meeting. "The peacekeeping force will have a predominantly African character [but] backstopping and command and control structures will be provided by the UN."

The meeting, which discussed the continuing violence in Darfur, was attended by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the AU and representatives from Security Council member countries.

Sudan, however, expressed reservations over the size of the proposed hybrid force, saying the planned 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police would need to be agreed on later. At the moment the AU has 7,000 troops, but critics say the underfunded force has largely been unable to stem the violence. The Addis Ababa meeting said it was necessary to urgently improve the capacity of the force.

The meeting called on the parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities. "With the public declaration to cease all hostilities from all parties, we believe the AU will be able to go one step further and facilitate direct talks between the government and the non-signatories [to the May agreement] to ensure that there is no impunity for violence in Darfur," the communiqué added.

A day before the meeting, the Sudan government had indicated it may be willing to accept greater UN support for the AU mission, but insisted that peacekeeping operations in the region remain under AU control. "In relation to the proposal made by the UN Secretary-General, this confirms the fact that all people are looking for a new alternative," Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said.

At least 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Darfur in the conflict between government forces, allied militias and rebels seeking greater autonomy, and more than two million more have been displaced.

In Darfur, the UN Emergency Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Egeland, met displaced civilians and said it was the worst security situation he had ever seen in the region. "This is my fourth visit to Darfur and I have never before seen such a bad security situation. There are too many armed elements in and around the camps threatening the inhabitants and preventing us from going in," he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said following recent attacks on civilians by armed men, thousands of women and children had taken shelter at a camp in south Darfur. An estimated 11,000 people arrived at Ottash Camp near Nyala in October alone, many of whom were were wounded and undernourished. The arrivals brought the number of people sheltering in the camp to 43,000.

"Most of them were mothers and children in dire need of shelter, food and water," Unicef Programme Officer Narinder Sharma said. "Some of them had been hiding in the bush since September when the trouble started, and they arrived at Ottash in a very bad way."

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