Darfur Shortfall

As Kofi Annan arrives in Sudan, The Scotsman report a shortfall in the amount pledged by donor nations to finance an adequate AU force:

Diplomats charged with funding an expanded African Union peacekeeping force to prevent further slaughter in the Darfur region of Sudan yesterday pledged less than a half of the money needed for the mission.

A year on since the genocide in Darfur was first brought to the attention of the United Nations, and in spite of a growing clamour for action led by human rights campaigners, aid agencies and newspapers such as The Scotsman, the UN concedes that the situation in the western region of the vast African country remains critical.

Yesterday, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, told a conference in Ethiopia that they were “running a race against time”.

Mr Annan urged rich nations to fund an expansion of the small African Union forces sent to Sudan “without delay”, saying civilians were still being attacked. “An expanded African Mission, at full operational capability, will mean the great majority of vulnerable civilians in Darfur will be protected from violence,” he said.

But, despite the reports of continuing attacks in Darfur, where upwards of 300,000 people are already believed to have died as a result of conflict, the countries gathered at the conference failed to come up with the cash required.

The African Union told donors that it needed $466 million (£256 million) to more than triple its existing force in Darfur and to equip it with six helicopter gunships, 116 armoured personnel carriers and fuel.

Instead the donors pledged only $200 million (£110 million), $134 million of that coming from Canada alone. The United States pledged $50 million on top of the $95 million it had already offered to end what Charles Snyder, the US State Department’s senior representative on Sudan, described as “acts of genocide”. Britain offered $12 million and Germany $1 million.