UN chief aims to complete Darfur deployment by Dec
Credit: Reuters
DUBLIN, July 7 (Reuters) - The United Nations aims to have its biggest ever peacekeeping force in place in Sudan's Darfur region by end-year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday.
"My target is that by the end of this year we will complete the deployment of the mandated number of 26,000 soldiers," Ban told a parliamentary hearing during a visit to Dublin.
"This is by far the largest ever (number of) peacekeepers deployed by the United Nations," Ban added.
The United Nations and African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) took over from a smaller AU mission last year and is well below its promised strength of 26,000 troops, a level which it had earlier aimed to reach by last month.
The six-year Darfur conflict has pitted pro-government militias and troops against mostly non-Arab rebels, who took up arms in 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the remote western region.
Law and order has collapsed in the region, where bandit attacks and clashes between rival tribes have become common. Militias and rebel groups have splintered and some have switched allegiance since the start of the conflict.
The United Nations says more than 2.7 million people have been driven from their homes by the fighting, and estimates of the death toll range from 10,000, according to Khartoum, to 300,000, according to U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes.
"The trouble comes from this continuing political instability and ... tensions between the countries in the region," Ban said. "The tensions between Sudan and Chad are still going on." (Reporting by Andras Gergely, editing by Tim Pearce)
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