African Union Peace Monitors Creating Pockets of Security in Darfur

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By Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International

The African Union force in Darfur is beginning to bring a modicum of stability to parts of that war-torn region. Though small and slow to deploy, the force has successfully headed off attacks, negotiated the release of hostages and provided enough security for some displaced villagers to return home. These successes in the face of huge obstacles highlight the need for a bigger force with more logistical and financial support from the donors who are financing the AU deployment.

It seems improbable that a pick-up multinational force operating below its full strength of 3,320 could bring even pockets of stability to an area the size of Texas, where lack of roads, airfields and other infrastructure, plus vast deserts, high temperatures and a summer rainy season that turns every thing to mud, make operations difficult.

Yet the humanitarian community, United Nations officials, and military officers from the U.S. and Europe -- the AU’s major donors -- all praise the force for saving lives. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the headquarters of the AU, a UN official, using the acronym for African Union Mission in Sudan, said, “More people would have died if AMIS had not been there.” A UN official in Khartoum added that “we’re getting a huge result from a very few troops. Most people say that they are better than UN peacekeepers.”

African Union Peace Monitors Creating Pockets of Security in Darfur....

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