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"The (AU) force will surely continue its mission until year end," said Nguesso. (Reuters) |
BANJUL — African Union leaders agreed late Sunday, July 2, to extend a peacekeeping force in Darfur until the end of the year and send troops to Somalia to support regional efforts at calming the chaotic east African state.
President of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, who holds the rotating AU presidency, told reporters at the end of a two-day summit that at the request of the UN, "the force will surely continue its mission until year end," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The AU had planned to withdraw its poorly-equipped force by the end of September citing a financial crunch.
The decision came after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan failed to persuade Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir to allow a NATO-backed UN force in the war-battered region.
Western powers plan a robust UN force to deploy in the devastated western region of Darfur.
Khartoum says the deployment would be a Western invasion, creating an Iraq-like quagmire.
The Khartoum government and the main rebel group, Sudan Liberation Army, signed a peace deal on May 5 to end a three-year conflict that has claimed up to 300,000 lives and displaced some 2.4 million others, according to UN estimates.
Repeated Rejection
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"President Bashir has indicated that in the world of politics things change," said Annan. (Reuters)
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Annan met Al-Bashir on the fringes of the AU summit but failed to reverse his opposition to a UN force.
"I of course continued to press for the eventual deployment for a UN force in Darfur and we agreed that dialogue had to continue," he told reporters after the meeting.
The UN chief, however, said he expected a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed eventually.
"President Bashir has indicated that in the world of politics things change. We hear 'never' and ... yet in time it does come round and so I am still expecting that in time there will be a UN peacekeeping force deployed in Darfur."
Annan said a conference in Brussels on July 18 would seek more support for the AU force and Bashir would present a plan for the next six months by the end of July.
Annan said the May 5 peace deal signed by Khartoum and one rebel group must be implemented immediately.
The deal has been undermined by three other rebel groups, who backtracked on their agreement last month to subscribe to the peace document.
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a holdout faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA) formed on Friday, June 30, a new alliance to fight Khartoum.
Somalia Peacekeepers
The summit of the 53-member AU also agreed to send troops to Somalia.
A resolution adopted unanimously said an AU peace and stability mission would deploy in Somalia in the wake of peacekeepers from the east African regional body IGAD (the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development).
"We have decided that the African Union, together with regional groups like IGAD, should take the situation in Somalia in hand," Nguesso told a news conference.
Somalia Foreign Minister Abdullahi Sheekh Ismail told Reuters that the resolution unanimously adopted by the heads of state envisaged the prompt deployment of an AU mission, once the IGAD mission was in place.
"It was described as 'as urgent as possible', in the shortest possible time," he said.
The powerless interim government supports the deployment of peacekeepers to the Horn of Africa country, which descended into lawlessness in 1991 when warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
But the powerful Islamic Courts, which wrested control of the war-scarred capital Mogadishu from US-backed warlords early last month, strongly opposes foreign intervention.
There was no indication given on the size of a possible force.
The African leaders also called for dialogue between the government and the Islamic Courts.
"The African Union will give all its support to the interim government, and we invite the international community to join us in supporting them, while favoring internal dialogue in Somalia," Nguesso said.
The AU says it will not deal directly with the Islamic Courts Islamists, now controlling a large swathe of central-southern Somalia.
Immigration
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The summit of the 53-member AU also agreed to send troops to Somalia.
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On migration to Europe, Nguesso said Africa did not believe that the "few measures" adopted by European countries would help solve the illegal migration crisis.
"As long as there is poverty...injustice persists, it will not be possible to bring this dramatic situation to a close," he said.
Thousands of African migrants have in recent months died at sea while on perilous journeys to Spain in barely seaworthy dug-out canoes.
Attending the African summit as guests were Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran — who castigated western "bullies" for exploiting the poor.
The African leaders also decided that ex-Chadian president, Hissene Habre, would be tried in Senegal.
A Belgian court had charged Habre for war crimes and crimes against humanity after he fled to Senegal after being deposed in 1990 by incumbent President Idriss Deby Itno.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said he refused to extradite Habre to Belgium because "Africans must be judged in Africa".
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