Darfur: Systematic Rape and the Burning of Villages, Still
RW:
Arab leaders reached a deal on Tuesday to provide funding for cash-strapped African Union troops in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur, Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh told reporters.
He said they also agreed at their summit in Khartoum to strengthen the AU force by providing troops from Arab states.
However, an Arab diplomat told AFP that discussions were still underway and that a final accord had yet to be reached.
The move came after Sudan appealed for the 22-member Arab League to help strengthen the AU force and back its rejection of plans by the UN Security Council to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur.
The three-year conflict in Darfur and a devastating humanitarian crisis has left up to 300,000 people dead and an estimated 2.4 million displaced.
On Saturday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol had demanded Arab funding for the AU mission to block “attempts to hand over its tasks to international forces.”
The UN Security Council had voted Friday to speed up plans to deploy peacekeepers to replace the AU mission.
The 7,000-strong African Union force, which was deployed in 2004, agreed on March 10 to continue for six more months its mission, which is already being largely financed by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
War broke out in Darfur in February 2003 when rebel groups revolted against what they say is the political and economic marginalization of the region’s black African ethnic groups by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.
The government responded by unleashing the Janjaweed militia, a force of horse-mounted gunmen, which has been blamed for many atrocities including systemic rape and the burning of villages.
