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Darfur Force Much Smaller Than Planned

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2007

EL FASHER, Sudan - Darfur's peacekeeping force will start in January with less than half the troops initially promised and without key equipment, the force's commander warned Saturday.

About 20,000 troops and 6,000 police have been pledged for the joint U.N. and African force.

Only 6,500 soldiers will be deployed, though, when the new mission, known as UNAMID, takes over from the current African Union force on Jan. 1, said Gen. Martin Agwai, the force commander.

Almost all of the 6,500 soldiers will come from that AU force, which has been overwhelmed by the violence in Darfur.

About 2,000 unarmed, civilian police could also be deployed by January in a best-case scenario, Agwai said.

The number, however, still would fall far short of the numbers the U.N. Security Council had planned to deploy in Darfur, a region nearly the size of France where 200,000 people already have died and 2.5 million been forced from their homes in four years of fighting between the Sudanese government and local rebels.

The Associated Press

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