The United Nations Security Council has voted to deploy peacekeepers in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region. As many as 26,000 troops and police will be sent to Darfur before the end of the year. The United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAUMID) will replace 7,000 AU troops that have failed to keep the peace in Darfur over the past three years. The UNAUMID has been authorised to use force to defend civilians and aid workers in Darfur. The Darfur region, whose population is largely Black Christian, has been engulfed in violence with local rebels clashing with an Arab militia called Janjaweed. Khartoum has denied allegations that it backs the Janjaweed. The United States has sought to make the conflict out to be one that is Arab Muslim versus Black Christian and has been pushing for sanctions and military intervention in Sudan. However, the crisis in Sudan is one of economic development, where the Darfur region has remained backward as a result of neglect by the government in Khartoum.
Since the eruption of the civil war in 2003, at least 200,000 people are believed to have died and around 200,000 displaced by the fighting. Sudan’s civilians, especially those in the Darfur region, have suffered immensely. Thousands in Darfur are starving as food, aid and medical supplies are prevented from reaching the people by rival militia. There is therefore much international concern over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Darfur. However, it is not the suffering of the people but Sudan’s oil wealth that has motivated governments to act. Several western governments have been itching to send troops in as they want influence in Sudan. Sudan’s government has hitherto fiercely resisted a UN force arguing that it undermines its sovereignty. It did accept an AU force but the cash-strapped AU was unable to pay the troops. The West’s efforts have now succeeded somewhat with the setting up of UNAUMID.
UNAUMID is being sent to Sudan not to push the agenda of any country or group of countries but to protect civilians and to prevent armed attacks on them from any quarter. The peacekeeping mission can succeed only if the force bears in mind that it is in Sudan to protect the interests of the Sudanese people, not to undermine the sovereignty of its government.