NEW YORK, 6 August 2009: The military chiefs of the United Nations’ largest and most complex peacekeeping operations urged Member States Thursday 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.
– 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, pitting Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen against rebel groups.
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.
He added: – We have been able to be one of the best sources of authenticated information of what is happening in Darfur. 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.
Gen. Agwai expected 92 per cent deployment by the end of the year, but stressed that there is little “point having boots without capabilities. Ethiopia has now pledged five [attack] helicopters to the mission … [but] to the best of my knowledge nobody has pledged one utility helicopter to the mission”.
As a sign of UNAMID contributing to an increasing sense of security in the region, Gen. Agwai said that the incidence of rapes and assaults has been cut
The latest bout of fighting between DR Congo troops and the rebel FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and their local allies uprooted a further 35.000 people in South Kivu last month, bringing the total displaced there since January to 536.000, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More than 1,8 million people are now internally displaced in the DR Congo’s east.
Lt.-Gen. Gaye stressed the drastic need for extra troops on the ground to implement MONUC’s protection mandate. “Everything is on track but unfortunately the first boots are still expected.”
He said that MONUC is slated to soon receive a Bangladeshi battalion, an Egyptian battalion, a Jordanian special force company, an Egyptian special force company and a Bangladeshi engineer company.
– Unfortunately, we are yet to have the 18 helicopters that have been authorized by the [Security] Council, he added.
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