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Half
of a 300-strong African protection force will arrive in west
Sudan's embattled Darfur region on Saturday, an official with the
African Union said yesterday.
"The Rwandan troops should be there on August 14," said the
official who requested anonymity and was contacted by telephone at
the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The pan-African force will consist of 150 Rwandan troops and 150
Nigerian soldiers who will be tasked with protecting an AU team of
observers monitoring a ceasefire between Khartoum and Darfur
rebels.
In Khartoum, a newspaper quoted the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia
as saying that the Rwandan troops were due to be airlifted by the
Netherlands to the war-torn region on Saturday, to be followed by
the Nigerian soldiers later this month.
Ambassador Osman al-Sayyed told the official Al-Anbaa daily that
his government was ready to welcome the contingent.
But Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir voiced opposition to a larger
peacekeeping deployment after the 53-member AU mulled boosting the
force to 2 000 troops. – Sapa-AFP.
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