African Union to bolster troops in Darfur, toughen their roles

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The African Union said yesterday it will send more peacekeeping troops to Sudan's Darfur region and toughen the soldiers' role in protecting civilians while the international community pressures the Sudanese government to allow a UN military force.

The underfunded and ill-equipped AU force has had little success in halting ethnic fighting that has killed at least 200,000 people and chased 2.5 million from their homes the past three years.

Aid groups say continued fighting is making a humanitarian disaster worse.

The war pits Arab militiamen allied with the Arab-dominated national government in Khartoum against ethnic Africans who rebelled in a long standing dispute over land and water in the arid region.

The AU mission was scheduled to wrap up at the end of September and be replaced by a larger United Nations force, but Sudan's leaders opposed such a move and the AU agreed to stay on until at least the end of the year.

``We are being asked to assume a broader and broader mission, but we need the means to do so," Monique Mukaruliza, acting head of the AU mission in Sudan, told the Associated Press.

AU leaders are finalizing plans to add 1,200 soldiers to the 7,000-strong force, officials said.

Even more soldiers could come if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization provided logistics support, and the Arab League and other international donors provided funding, the officials said.

The Arab League recently backed Sudan's opposition to the Aug. 31 UN Security Council resolution calling for 20,000 UN-commanded soldiers to take over peacekeeping in Darfur.

AU officials said the bloc's peacekeepers also intend to broaden their rules of engagement so they can protect civilians more efficiently.

Under their new ``concept of operations," peacekeepers would not only monitor violence and investigate incidents, but also actively interfere to prevent attacks on civilians by the multiple rebel groups and progovernment militias that plague the region, they said.

The AU's spokesman in Sudan, Nouredinne Mezni, said the new rules would enable peacekeepers to better implement a peace agreement signed in May between Sudan and the main Darfur rebel group.

``With our current resources, we don't really have the means to fully implement the peace agreement," Mezni said.

Jan Pronk, the head of the UN in Sudan, said last week that the May accord was ``in a coma," and international aid groups say violence has only worsened since the agreement was signed.