UN ambassadors in Sudan have met with strong opposition from tribal leaders to the deployment of troops in Darfur, including threats of holy war, BBC Online reports Saturday.
The UN wants to take over peacekeeping efforts in Darfur to help implement a recent peace deal signed between the government and the main rebel force.
But one tribal leader has threatened to call for jihad if non-African troops intervene in the war-torn region. – If a UN force is sent here, I will call for jihad, warned Muwad Jalalabin, chief of the Barty tribe.
Any deployment of non-African forces in the region would be considered as “foreign occupation”, he said in el-Fasher, the main town in north Darfur.
The conflict has claimed some 200.000 lives in the past three years and more than two million has been displaced by the fighting. Some 7.000 African Union (AU) troops are currently stationed in the war-torn western region, but they are under-funded and poorly equipped.
However, Khartoum has made clear that it would prefer the AU peacekeepers to be given more support rather than allow a UN force into the region.
Meanwhile, members of Security Council delegation toured Darfur and met with tribal leaders, relief workers and government officials over the proposal. The 15-strong delegation, which includes envoys from the five permanent council members, arrived in Sudan on Monday in a bid to try and to persuade Khartoum to accept the plan.
Following talks in the capital, UN delegates travelled to Darfur but were forced to abandon plans to visit refugee camps in the area over security concerns.
Since then, some 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced by the fighting.
