Laolu Akande

New York

Nigeria’s role in African peace and security issues continues to rise as the country would be leading the 20,000 strong African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force to Darfur, Sudan, where some 250,000 people are estimated to have died and more than 2 million uprooted during nearly four years of fighting.

But one other African country-Egypt, and two non-African countries-China and Pakistan would be joining Nigeria as the four United Nations member states that have already given an indication to contribute troops for the international peacekeeping force that is being prepared for deployment to Darfur.

The international peacekeeping force being planned for Darfur is being called a hybrid force because it is being organised by both the African Union and United Nations. In fact the Sudanese government flatly rejected an idea of a wholly UN force insisting on the active participation of Africans.

An authoritative UN source confirmed recently that other non- African countries including Pakistan and China indicated interest in contributing troops to the 20,000 large force, which may be ready to deploy this October. Actually the Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he would work hard to push for an earlier deployment in September, underscoring his sense of urgency on the Darfur crisis, described in some international forums as genocide.

Although Nigerian troops are already stationed in Sudan, there are indications that Nigerian would also be adding more troops once the AU-UN mission takes off. For now, the Nigerian troops in Sudan are under the AU mandate.

According to Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Aminu Wali, Nigeria would be sending more troops to Sudan once the troops management shift from an AU mandate to an AU-UN mandate. The need to fortify the AU mission in Sudan arose out of the technical and financial limitations of the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers. The duty of the 20,000 international troops that would also include police, is to mainly protect the civilians in Darfur.

It was becoming clearer that an AU mission cannot single-handedly accomplish the task in Sudan, and in order to get help from other countries, the UN had to be brought in, and through that countries like Pakistan and China are now expected to contribute troops while other western countries are also pledging other forms of logistic support. Egypt, another African country has also indicated readiness to supply troops, making the list of countries ready to contribute troops to four.

A UN senior official explained that Nigeria’s immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, General Martin Agwai, who has already been identified as the commander of the AU-UN force would be playing a critical role because the Sudanese insisted on an African commander and Agwai was also considered by the UN as about the best African to lead the international force. 

Already Agwai is holding the job down as the commander of the African Mission in Sudan, AMIS, but once the mission transits into an international force with other non-African countries, Agwai’s role would change from being an AU commander to being technically a UN commander. The Nigerian government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Umaru Yar’Adua has already conceded to the UN request to have Agwai head the international force.

Sources said when the Sudanese insisted on African leadership of the force, the UN had to hang its fortune on a tested UN commander since other non-African countries willing to supply troops had to be comfortable in whoever was going to be commanding the force. Both the UN and Sudan found Agwai comfortable and that was how the UN Secretary-General requested Agwai who was the most senior Nigerian military officer to lead the force.

Some critics even raised the issue of having Nigeria’s most senior military officer go lead a force of only 20,000 troops from leading the armed forces of Nigeria, which runs into hundreds of thousands. The CIA fact book says as at 2005 Nigeria has more than 2.6m citizens in manpower reaching military service age annually. But another diplomat says by releasing Agwai for this international assignment, Nigeria has shown its commitment to African regional peace and security again.

Currently at the United Nations Headquarters, the Security Council is now about completing work on a draft resolution to authorize the AU-UN hybrid force for Sudan.

Commenting on this, Mr. Ban said on Monday that the international community has made “important progress,: on the force but quickly added “we must now push the pace. Hard.”

Ban hopes the Security Council will take the necessary action this week and observed that according to the draft resolution Member States who have indicated readiness to contribute to the force both in terms of troops and logistics would have 90 days from the date of the resolution to finalize their contributions.

A delegation of the UN Security Council had just completed a trip to Sudan and other parts of Africa last month June 14-21 in the council’s efforts to supporting ongoing peace efforts on the continent.

According to him in Sudan, “the political situation on the ground is too fragile, the humanitarian crisis too dire, to waste more precious time.”

The UN scribe also disclosed that the Chinese Government “will soon send a contingent of military engineers in Darfur, where they will begin the essential communications and logistical work that must precede the mission.”

According to him, a preliminary reconnaissance group was billed to have left for Sudan yesterday July 17 and that “ several hundred international troops, or more, will be ready to deploy by October. I will push for September.”

Ban, who said he would be going to Darfur at the earliest possible time, also promised action on the political front. According to him “our intention is to step up the pace of political negotiations involving all parties – rebel leaders, tribal leaders, government leaders. The goal is to get them around a table by early September.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Laolu Akande ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 20.07.2007 10:48

Oghre  Villager

# 2 Mess with the best, die like the rest. All hail Nigeria!!! Posted by Oghre| 20.07.2007 12:06

Odinaka  Villager

# 3 Sudan insists that the force be AU led. The same AU that lack the gut to call them to order. Egypt is going to contribute forces, the same Egypt that was one of the strongest allies of the pro-Arab govt in Khartoun in their resolve to impose Arabic and Islamic laws on the Animist and Christain South at all cost, even at the cost of more than a million life. China is there too, the same China that has empowered the bloodthirsty govt led by the "Arabic" North to keep dehumanising indigenous Africans. To hell with the United States of Africa. Nonsense. Only fools will want to form a common government with a group of people who don't give a hoot when they are raped, killed and taken into slavery as long as the victimizers are Arabs/Islamic and/or are motivated by (fake) Arabic/Islamic causes. Even more infuriating is the fact that some fellows in Nigeria and the rest of Africa who don't allow us to rest with their cries about how Israel is finishing off Arabs/Muslims and how America is doing evil in Iraq will hardly find any fault with what their compatriots have been doing in Sudan (in the South initially, which was more horrific, and now in Darfur), much less criticise them or even threaten to or support (rationalise) the actions of those who blow up the murderers in Sudan and their economic and financial benefactors. It should be noted that the Arab league have consistently backed the govt of Sudan in their atrocities while the Islamic militants have threatened war on any infidel who dared defile muslim land by moving into Darfur as UN force member , the holy land where blood flows unabated. So are Egypt and Pakistan and China the moderate face of those militants or are the militans going to blow up the trio? It was ok for the infidels to defile muslim lands in Kosovo in order to punish another infidel (Milesovic) and save muslims from extermination but not good for the same infidels to move into a muslim land, Darfur, wipe fellow muslims (Janjawee and Sudan govt) in order to save some other muslims from further genocide. Double standard, hypocrisy and disguised evil intentions are pretty much at work against Africans, yet they prefer to wish away their predicament. Illusion is the twin brother of cowardice, both are cousins to mediocrity. Posted by Odinaka| 20.07.2007 13:39