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 reply. Sudan thinks that it can easily manipulate
African leaders given there long history with these
countries after independence.

In other words the Sudanese goverment can pay off
and casue a scandal if "pushed". The African forces
are great but are highly suseptible to bribes.

Other nations who send tropps are also but African
troops even more so because of poverty within there
nation.I hope that this will work but time will tell!