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| Africa Horn |
| Sudan Approves UN Reinforcement in Darfur |
| 2007-04-10 |
| Sudan yesterday gave its approval for the United Nations to start sending reinforcements to African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, the AU’s peace and security commissioner said. “The government of Sudan has made a series of remarks and questions. Today, the AU and UN provided them (with) all the clarifications and they have agreed on this second package,” Said Djinnit told a press conference. He was speaking following talks between UN, AU and Sudanese government officials in Addis Ababa over the three-stage plan for international peacekeeping in Darfur, drawn up last November. Djinnit said the Sudanese representatives agreed on all but “one outstanding point” of the second-stage plan to send UN troops to support the AU force, but did not specify what this point was. They promised to respond to this outstanding issue “within days,” after speaking to the government in Khartoum, Djinnit said. He said the agreement was a “very important step forward” and said the AU was now urging the UN to “move quickly” to implement the plan. However, a member of the UN delegation noted that details of the third stage, which foresees UN and AU peacekeepers operating in a joint force in Darfur, were still not agreed. “It is a very important move. But it is only the second phase, not the end. We are just at the middle stage,” the diplomat said. |
| Posted by:Fred |