Darfur Force ‘To Be All African’

The African Union chairman says outside troops will not be needed for the new Darfur peacekeeping force in western Sudan because of adequate troop commitments from African nations. “I can confirm today that we have received sufficient commitments from African countries that we will not have to resort to non-African forces,” AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said on Sunday after meeting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum. The Sudanese government is adamantly opposed to non-Africans playing any major role in the hybrid United Nations-African Union operation that was authorized by the U.N. Security Council on July 31 and will be made up of 20,000 peacekeepers and 6,000 civilian police.

Mr. Konare’s announcement ran counter to statements made last Tuesday by Andrew Natsios, the U.S. envoy to Sudan, that Sudan would have to accept non-African troops in the beefed-up force because Africa lacks enough trained soldiers to fully staff the peacekeeping contingent. Nigeria, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, and Ethiopia have made troop announcements. This is in addition to pre-existing AU troops already in Darfur.

My response: It is great that Africa is taking more of a lead on Darfur. As an American of Cameroonian, Chadian, and Nigerian descent, I am glad that two of my ancestral countries are in the mix. My only concern is whether the allocated troops are well-trained enough and have enough firepower to take down the janjaweed. After all, this may be the reason why the president of Sudan - an Arabized Muslim government that is backing the janjaweed as they wipe out the black population - is so supportive of this peacekeepers proposal.