New York, 11 Aug-(ANA)-The military chiefs of the United Nations’ largest and most complex peacekeeping operations have urged Member States to provide the troops and equipment necessary to carry out their missions in the war-ravaged regions of Darfur in western Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“We have had a challenging time to meet all our mandated tasks because of the
issue of deployment and lack of capabilities,” General Martin Luther Agwai,
Force Commander of the joint African Union-UN mission in Darfur
UNAMID), told reporters in New York.
The Security Council authorized the deployment of UNAMID to quell fighting and
protect civilians in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed
and some 2.7 million others forced from their homes since fighting erupted in
2003.
UNAMID has stabilized the situation in Darfur, despite having less than 70 per
cent of the authorized number of troops under the 2007 Security Council
resolution setting up the force, said Gen. Agwai.
In addition, “we have been able to be one of the best sources of authenticated
information of what is happening in Darfur,” he said. “We have come a long way,
but there are still a lot of challenges, no doubt about it.”
At current strength UNAMID is unable to provide full-time security to all of the
makeshift camps sheltering the millions of people who have fled the violence
engulfing the region over the years.
“We have not been able to have a 24/7 protection coverage in most of the IDP
[internally displaced persons] camps,” said Gen. Agwai. “We have prioritized the
most vulnerable and volatile camps.” (ANA)
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