ICG calls for UN stabilisation force in Darfur

An international thinktank on Friday called for the immediate deployment of a United Nations-mandated stabilisation force to protect civilians in the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, saying the crisis there threatened to escalate and engulf the region. In its latest report on Darfur, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said that because a full-fledged UN peacekeeping force would require at least six months before it could take over the mandate of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), a multinational stabilisation force should be deployed as a stopgap measure. The 7,000-strong AMIS force was unable to effectively monitor an already crumbling ceasefire between the Sudanese government and the rebel fighters in Darfur, the agency said. "What we now propose, therefore, is a compromise driven by the urgent need for a more robust force in Darfur." ICG suggested a militarily capable UN member state - such as France, which already has troops and aircraft in the area - offer to go to Darfur as the lead nation in the first phase of the proposed UN mission. Such a force of about 5,000 personnel could then be joined by troops from one or two other militarily capable UN members. "This stabilisation force would be a self-contained, separately commanded UN mission with identified functional or geographic divisions of responsibility that would work beside AMIS and through a liaison unit at its headquarters until arrangements were in place for a 1 October transition to the full UN mission," the ICG report said. On 10 March, the African Union extended the AMIS mandate until 30 September, after which it would transfer the operation to the UN. The full UN mission would need to be recruited from the best AMIS elements as well as a wider circle of Asian and other member states, the agency said. ICG warned that an escalating proxy war between Sudan and Chad threatened to produce a new humanitarian catastrophe on both sides of the border. "Inside Darfur humanitarian access is at its lowest in two years, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the violence, and political talks are stalled. Fighting is most intense and civilians are at greatest risk in West Darfur along the Chad-Sudan border, where a major invasion by Chadian rebels appears imminent, and in southern Darfur in the Tawila-Graida corridor," the ICG report added. The organisation recommended the United States and the European Union provide the necessary financial and technical assistance to the AU at least through September 2006 and help AMIS implement the key recommendations for internal improvements. The US and EU should also persuade the Security Council to authorise immediate planning for a UN peacekeeping force of at least double the present size of AMIS, equipped to fulfil a more serious military mission, provided with an appropriately stronger mandate, and ready to take over full responsibility on 1 October 2006. "The consequences if these steps are not taken are all too easy to foresee; tens of thousands more lives lost, spill-over of the conflict into Chad and proxy wars that destabilise a wide swathe of Africa," ICG warned. Donor countries, for their part, should convene an early pledging conference to ensure that AMIS is fully funded until the proposed full-fledged UN mission can take over in October 2006 and also persuade the Security Council to authorise a mission of some 15,000 with a strong mandate focused on civilian protection, ICG said. According to the UN, the Darfur conflict continues to affect some 3.5 million people. An estimated 1.8 million people have been internally displaced, and 200,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad. In a related development, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that it would soon run out of funds for its Darfur operation. The agency said that it had only US $10.9 million, or 11 percent of the total funding it needed for its work in Darfur this year. "Nearly 2 million children depend on our efforts to protect them from disease, from the effects of conflict and to provide opportunities for schooling," Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's representative in Sudan, said in a statement on Thursday.